Film Screening: Major Leagues? (¿Grandes Ligas?)
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
6 to 8pm
[Image Description: The book cover of “MAJOR LEAGUES? (GRANDAS LIGAS?) with an image of a young man in a baseball uniform with his hands up, three people smiling for the camera, and a group of people watching a baseball game.]
Guests were introduced to the members of the Cuban National Women’s Baseball Team as they discuss their passion for their sport and the trials and tribulations of participating in Cuba’s national past-time in a society filled with machismo, prejudice and daily hardships. The older generation of women who participated in the League in the 1940's talk about the sexism they dealt with and how generation after generation, women still face the same attitudes from men about their participation in the sport. (27 min. 2008, Spanish with English subtitles)
Introduced by Alexandra Halkin, Americas Media Initiative
Major Leagues? was awarded the Premio Grupo de Reflexión and Solidaridad Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero at the VIII Muestra de Nuevos Realizadores (Young Director's Festival), 2009, Havana, Cuba; screened at the Baseball Film Festival 2009, New York, and at the Cine Pobre Festival in Cienfuegos, Cuba in 2008; it also is being used as part of a program to prevent domestic violence in Honduras and other Central American countries.
Alexandra Halkin (Documentary Filmmaker/Director, Americas Media Initiative) founded the Chiapas Media Project, an award winning bi-national organization that has trained over 200 indigenous men and women in video production in Chiapas and Guerrero, Mexico. A Guggenheim Fellowship and Fulbright recipient, Alexandra has produced five documentary shorts in Mexico, many of them award winning and her work has been broadcast and screened at film and video festivals worldwide. In 2010, she founded the Americas Media Initiative (AMI) a non-profit organization that works with Cuban filmmakers living in Cuba. In March 2012, Alexandra collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art Department of Film on a US documentary shorts program, Closing Distances/Cerrando Distancias that traveled to five towns in Cuba. Last February Alexandra co-organized the New Cuban Shorts, part of the Documentary Fortnight Series at the MoMA. Most recently Alexandra completed the Closing Distances/Cerrando Distancias 2 tour with US filmmaker, Minda Martin that traveled to five towns in Eastern Cuba.
Ernesto Pérez Zambrano (Director): (Born November 25, 1981). In 2008 he graduated from the Facultad de Comunicación Audiovisual del Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) (School of Audiovisual Media Communication of ISA), Havana, Cuba, in Audiovisual Communication, specializing in Direction. He has collaborated with the networks Red Iberoamericana de Masculinidades (Ibero-American Network of Masculinities) and the Red del Universo Audiovisual del Niño y la Niña Latinoamericanos (Network of the Audiovisual Universe of Latinamerican Girls and Boys). He has participated in academic events on masculine studies, gender studies and communication and environmental education. In 2012 he participated in the XXX International Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), San Francisco, California, with the lecture Razones del documental contemporáneo en Cuba. Preguntas de un joven realizador (Reasons for the contemporary documentaries in Cuba. Questions of a Young Filmmaker). His documentaries have been included, in various editions of the Muestra Joven (Young Directors Film Festival) and in the Muestra Hecho en Cuba (Made in Cuba). His filmography as director includes, the documentaries:Hombres Sobre Cubierta, ("Men on Deck") (52 min. 2008, OJALÁ, Canek) Codirected with Alejandro Ramírez Ánderson. ¿Grandes Ligas? ("Major Leagues?") (27 min. 2008, FAMCA-CONTRAHEMONIC@S), awarded the Premio Grupo de Reflexión and Solidaridad Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero in the VIII Muestra de Nuevos Realizadores (Reflection Group and Solidarity Monseñor Oscar Arnulfo Romero in the VIII Young Directors Film Festival) organized by ICAIC in 2009, shown at the Baseball Film Festival 2009, New York and at the Muestra Temática del Festival de Cine Pobre Humberto Solás in Cienfuegos (Low-budget Cinema Film Festival) in 2008; it also is part of a program for preventing domestic violence in Honduras and other Central American nations.