Events
Spring 2009 Semester
Hippodrome Film Series Spring 2009:
Latin American Science Fiction and Fantasy Film
Organized by Libby Ginway. These showings are free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles. See below for dates and film descriptions.
January
Tuesday, January 6
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
Basic Sanitation: the Movie (2007), directed by Jorge Furtado, Brazil. When a small town in Southern Brazil needs a new sewer system, the only funds available must be used to make a fictional film. Convinced that they can take on the project and still have money left over to fix the sewer, local leaders decide to make a low-budget creature feature. This comedy stars Fernanda Torres, Wagner Moura, Camila Pitanga, Lazaro Ramos and Paulo Jose. Part of the Latin American Science Fiction and Fantasy Film series. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
Tuesday, January 13
4:00 pm, Dauer Hall, Room 215
Ecodystopias in Brazilian Science Fiction Film, a lecture by Alfredo Suppia, a film specialist from the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora.
Tuesday, January 13
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
The Fifth Power (1962), directed by Alberto Pieralisi, Brazil. Set in Rio de Janeiro, this thriller involves a clandestine group of foreigners broadcasting subliminal messages to the Brazilian population. The film’s sophisticated techniques, elaborate chase scenes and Hitchcockian-inspired suspense make it a classic of Brazilian cinema. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
Wednesday, January 14
4:00pm, Dauer Hall, Room 215
Brazilian Cinema and Science Fiction, a lecture by Alfredo Suppia, a film specialist from the Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora.
Thursday, January 15
4:00 pm, Hippodrome
The Sputnik Man (1959), directed by Carlos Manga, Brazil. A late example of the Brazilian comic genre of the chanchada, this film takes on Cold War politics when a rural couple finds a Sputnik-like object in their backyard, provoking a crisis with both the American and Soviet authorities. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
February
Monday, February 16
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
Macunaíma (1969), directed by Joaquim Pedro de Andrade, Brazil. One of the few examples of the Cinema novo to be popular with filmgoers and critics alike, this comic film is based on a modern Amerindian trickster figure who sets out to explore the new urban jungle during the Brazilian dictatorship. Both allegorical and phantasmagorical, this trippy and hip color film was originally called “Jungle Freaks” in English. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
February 19-21
Images: Eneas De Troya, Flickr
Monday, February 23
4:00 pm, 150 Pugh Hall
Prof. Armin Schwegler of the University of California, Irvine, will visit SPS on February 23, 2009. Highlight of his visit will be a lecture, entitled "Palenquero and Marginalized Afro-Hispanic Speech Communities". A native of Switzerland, Prof. Schwegler (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1991), is currently director of the Global Cultures program at UCI, and he is also associate editor of the Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. He is an internationally recognized expert on creole Languages, especially Palenquero, a Spanish-based creole spoken in Colombia.
Monday, February 23
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
Man Facing Southeast (1986), directed by Ernesto Subiela, Argentina. The mysterious appearance of an extraterrestrial in a mental institution begins to unravel conventional definitions of sanity and order, especially for the psychiatrist in charge of the case. With its moving score, this powerful, tragic film questions institutional power, while exploring the truths of the subconscious. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
Tuesday, March 31
3:00 pm, Reference Room of the Latin American Collection, 400 Smathers
There will be a formal celebration of a book of essays that has been published in homage to SPS Emeritus Professor Andrés Avellaneda. Our featured speaker will be Saúl Sosnowski of the University of Maryland, who will present a talk entitled "Andrés Avellaneda: su letra en la historia". The volume we are honoring is: Alvaro Félix Bolaños, Geraldine Cleary Nichols, Saúl Sosnowski, eds. Literatura, política y sociedad: construcciones de sentido en la Hispanoamérica contemporánea. Homenaje a Andrés Avellaneda. Pittsburgh: Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana, 2008.
March
Tuesday, March 3
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
Don’t Die Before Telling Me Where You Are Going (1995) direted by Ernest Subiela, Argentina. Technology, love and fantasy are wedded in this romantic film when a film projectionist invents a machine to record his dreams and a friend builds a robot in the image of famous tango singer of the 1940s Carlos Gardel. Its interweaving plot offers surprises as it explores the themes of reincarnation and filmmaking. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
Monday, March 23
7:30 pm, Hippodrome
Cronos (1993), directed by Guillermo del Toro, Mexico. The Cronos device bestows vampiric powers to its user. While helping a child to be reunited with her grandfather, its user soon discovers nothing comes without a price. From the director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Blade II and Hellboy, this macabre and creepy tale offers a Latin American take on the vampire myth. Free and open to the public. All films are in Portuguese or Spanish with English subtitles.
April
Friday, April 3
1:55pm, MAEB (Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering B) 211
Of Avatars and Novels: Paz Soldan's Turing's Delirium and its SF Pedigree. Although often presented as an sf writer, Bolivian author Edmundo Paz-Soldan uses extant technology in his novels, a trend comparable with Canadian sf writer William Gibson's recent work. Nonetheless, Paz Soldan's 2003 Turing's Delirium has strong ties to the sf genre because it is encoded with other sf novels and Borges stories (Snow Crash, Dick's "The Electric Ant" and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, Borges's Library of Babel and The Immortal). This talk will discuss codes and code breaking, 90s neoliberalism as an avatar of 70s dictatorships, and the novel's portrayal of hacker culture.
Wednesday, April 8
12:00, Dauer 215
Professor Fernández is a novelist who has been described as a "Cuban William Burroughs" for the fantastic and surreal qualities of much of his fiction. The collision of languages and temperaments that is characteristic of the immigrant experience makes for the inexplicable plot twists and inevitable humor that careens through Fernández's work. He is the author of La vida es un special (1982), La montaña rusa (1985), Raining Backwards (1988), Holy Radishes! (1995), En la ocho y la doce (2001) and several published short stories including, Wrong Channel, The Brewery, Is in the Stars and It's not Easy.
In 2001, Dr. Fernández was named the Dorothy Lois Breen Hoffman Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics.
To read about his books, see: http://www.fsu.edu/~modlang/divisions/spanish/fernandez_publications.pdf
Monday, April 20
4:00, Dauer 219
SPS Student Awards Ceremony: The first-ever SPS Student Awards Ceremony will be held on Monday, April 20, 2009 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Dauer 219. We will be recognizing our students' achievements for the 2008-09 academic year, and handing out a few awards for best performances in teaching and scholarship. We invite all RLL Spanish and Portuguese alumni to attend!
Monday, April 27
3:30, Friends of Music Room
SPS is proud to announce that two of our teaching assistants, Mr. Juan Pablo Rodríguez and Ms. Andréa Ferreira, have won 2008-09 Graduate Student Teaching Awards in a University-wide competition. Juan Pablo teaches Spanish and Andréa Portuguese. Additionally, Andréa was rated first among all winners, so she has been given the Calvin A. VanderWerf Award as best TA of the year. A reception will be held to present the award.
