Special Collection

Latin American & Latinx Documentaries
Latin American & Latinx Documentaries
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Break and Enter a.k.a. Squatters (Newsreel #62)
Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America
If You Could Walk In My Shoes
Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans in Southern California
Living Along the Fenceline
Nana Dijo; Irresolute Radiography of Black Consciousness
Of Kites and Borders
El Pueblo se Levanta (Newsreel #63)
Stand-By Generation, The
Vieques: An Endless Battle
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Break and Enter a.k.a. Squatters (Newsreel #62)
Newsreel
Producer: Newsreel
1971, 42 min., BW, US
This film captures the militant antecedents to today's housing reclamation movement in New York City. In 1970, several hundred Puerto Rican and Dominican families reclaimed housing left vacant by the city. They pulled the boards off the doors, cleaned and repaired the buildings and moved in. BREAK AND ENTER documents the activist work of Operation Move-In and the city's attempts to displaced the ... More
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Harvest of Empire: The Untold Story of Latinos in America
Eduardo López & Peter Getzels
Producer: Wendy Thompson-Marquez
2012, 90 min., Color, US
At a time of heated and divisive debate over immigration, HARVEST OF EMPIRE examines the direct connection between the long history of U.S. intervention in Latin America and the immigration crisis we face today.

Based on the groundbreaking book by award-winning journalist Juan González, HARVEST OF EMPIRE takes an unflinching look at the role that U.S. economic and military interests pla ... More
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If You Could Walk In My Shoes
Ricardo E Causo
2016, 27 min., Color, US
Ecuadorian immigrant Roberto Marquez has been living in New York City for more than a decade, yet he has been unable to adjust his immigration status because there has been no path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants in the United States since 1998. Roberto left Ecuador during the immigration wave of the late 90s when more than 500,000 Ecuadorians left their country due to political and fin ... More
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Invisible Roots: Afro-Mexicans in Southern California
Tiffany Walton & Lizz Mullis
Producer: Tiffany Walton, Lizz Mullis & Richard Goldlander
2015, 21 min., Color, US
More than one million Mexicans are of African descent, yet this heritage is often forgotten, denied, and many times stigmatized, both in Mexico and in Chicanx communities in the United States. INVISIBLE ROOTS is an intimate look at Afro-Mexicans living in Southern California as they discuss complex issues of racial, national and cultural identities.

The Herrera family in Pasadena proud ... More
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Living Along the Fenceline
Lina Hoshino & Gwyn Kirk
Producer: Lina Hoshino, Gwyn Kirk & Deborah Lee
2012, 65 min., Color, US
LIVING ALONG THE FENCELINE tells the stories of seven grassroots women leaders from across the Pacific to Puerto Rico whose communities are affected by the U.S. military presence in their backyards. Although not considered war zones, these strategic locations are part of a global network of 1,000 U.S. bases that allows the United States to go to war anytime, anywhere. These women are not four-star ... More
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Nana Dijo; Irresolute Radiography of Black Consciousness
Bocafloja & Cambiowashere
2015, 40 min., BW
Navigating in a cultural industry flooded with politically conservative projects about afro-descendency, with approaches that are fully subordinated to the cultural hegemonies and with the only intention to exoticize and not to empower the body of the oppressed, NANA DIJO emerges as a solid effort to affirm the Black experience narratives in first person.

NANA DIJO is an urgent historic ... More
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Of Kites and Borders
Yolanda Pividal
2014, 60 min., Color, US/Mexico/Spain
OF KITES AND BORDERS, winner of the Best Documentary Award at the San Diego Film Festival and the Havana Film Festival in New York, tells the story of the daily struggle to be a child living on the US-Mexico border through the eyes of four working children in the city of Tijuana.

Edie is a teen who smuggles immigrants into the United States while promising himself that he will never get ... More
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El Pueblo se Levanta (Newsreel #63)
Newsreel
Producer: Newsreel
1971, 42 min., BW, US
In the late '60s, conditions for Puerto Ricans in the US reached the boiling point. Faced with racial discrimination, deficient community services, and poor education and job opportunities, Puerto Rican communities began to address these injustices by using direct action. This film focuses on the community of East Harlem, capturing the compassion and militancy of the Young Lords as they implement ... More
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Stand-By Generation, The
Juan Carlos Davila
2016, 20 min., Color, Puerto Rico
Shot in Puerto Rico, THE STAND-BY GENERATION explores the challenges of young workers seeking secure and stable jobs. The majority of the jobs offered to the new generation of workers in Puerto Rico are precarious. This documentary follows the lives of young people caught in the ‘precariat’ world of part-time and temporary under-employment devoid of security. This new generation of university grad ... More
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Vieques: An Endless Battle
Juan C Dávila
2016, 68 min., Color, Puerto Rico
For more than sixty years the United States Navy used the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico, to test military weaponry and to train soldiers. Decades of opposition from the local community and international allies, lead to the withdrawal of the armed forces and the ending of all military activity on the island and its surroundings. After more than a decade of this departure, the Viequenses demand to ... More
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