To aid in the selection of videos for your class and research needs, we've created a large number of filmographies on many subject areas.
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This is a selective list of video holdings in the American University Library. Filmographies are created by doing multiple keyword searches in the catalog to capture as many titles on a topic as possible.
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Apartment zero. 1988. 1 videodisc (124 min.). Set in modern day Argentina, the film centers on a pair of unlikely roommates, Adrian LeDuc and Jack Carney. Adrian is a lonely, reserved man who runs a local revival movie theater. In order to make ends meet, he takes in a roommate--Jack. Jack is handsome, charming and alluring. He may also be a killer. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5184
El aura = The aura. 2005. 1 videodisc (138 min.). "Espinoza is a taxidermist marked with strange qualities--a photographic memory and random fits of epilepsy. To escape his lonely everyday life, he spends his time lost in fantasy about the perfect heist. When a fatal hunting accident presents a golden opportunity, he takes the chance to put his plot into action. But living in a world of real violence might bring a lethal dose of reality to Espinoza--and the beautiful young woman he's brought into his plan. Now he must decide if criminal perfection is worth the ultimate price."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8109
Bolivia. 2001. 1 videodisc (71 min.). A man finds work as an illegal alien in Argentina in order to support his family in Bolivia. The film paints a portrait of struggle among the poor in the modern economy of Argentina, with a focus on the mistreatment of dispossessed workers. DVD 7963
Bombón, el perro = Bombón, the dog. 2004. 1 videodisc (97 min.). Life has not been a bed of roses for 52-year-old Juan 'Coco' Villegas. Juan has been a gas station attendant for twenty years in Patagonia and finds himself jobless overnight. He first tries to survive by selling knives of his own making. But business is bad and he can't find real work. One day though, after fixing a vehicle on a farm, he gets paid, not with money, but with a beautiful Argentinian watch-dog. From this blessed day on, things start looking up. DVD 9697
El bonaerense. 2002. 1 videodisc (99 min.). Zapa (Jorge Román) is a 32-year-old locksmith in a small village who's sent by his boss to assist in a robbery by cracking a safe. The next day the boss has left town, leaving Zapa to take the blame. He gets arrested, but an uncle who used to be the police chief gets him out of jail and arranges for him to move to Buenos Aires and join the city's police force, the notorious Bonaerense. In his new life as a cop, he finds himself drawn into a world of corruption and brutality. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 989
Cama adentro = Live-in maid. 2004. 1 videodisc (87 min.). When Buenos Aires is plunged into an economic meltdown, Bebe faces a crisis and is unable to pay her longtime maid, Dora. The two realize that in order to survive, they must put aside their class resentments. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9287
Carancho. 2010. 1 videodisc (107 min.). 22 deaths a day, 683 a month, over 8,000 a year, 100,000 over the last decade. In Argentina, traffic accidents are decimating those 35 and under. Festering beneath Argentina's crime-plagued, class-divided society is the quasi-lawless realm of motor vehicle accidents and their aftermath. Sosa is an ambulance-chasing lawyer. He's lost his license, so now he works the late-night streets of Buenos Aires, signing up injured clients for a predatory firm that will pay them perhaps a quarter, or a fifth, of what the insurance companies pay. Luján is an overworked young doctor who takes ambulance shifts for extra money. Her level of sleeplessness and chemical intake renders her less than desirable for performing emergency life-and-death surgery, but to Sosa Luján seems to be a ministering angel who can redeem his sleazoid existence. While Luján and Sosa can fall in love, the more vital question is can they escape the grim logic of their situation, evade responsibility for their own actions, and outrun a machine determined to destroy them? HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 3405
Cautiva = Captive. 2005. 1 videodisc (109 min.). "Cristina Quadri's life is thrown into turmoil when she is suddenly escorted from her strict Catholic school and told that she is really Sofía Lombardi, the daughter of activists who disappeared in the '70s. Questioning everything she once thought true, Cristina embarks on a journey to find her true identity. Meeting others like herself, the young girl soon discovers the real-life horrors of Argentina's relatively recent past and the nightmare that claimed tens of thousands of lives during the country's 'Dirty War'" -- Container. DVD 8773
Cazadores de utopías = Hunters of Utopias. 1995. 1 videodisc (145 min.). On the Organización Montoneros, a Peronist guerrilla movement in 1970s Argentina, and their struggle against the country's military dictatorship. Contains extensive interviews. DVD 9485
Cenizas del Paraiso = Paradise ashes. 1998. 1 videodisc (123 min.). "A prominent judge commits suicide and the dead body of a young girl with 15 stab wounds is found on the same day. The judge's three sons confess to the girl's murder, but everything is not what it seems as the truth is twisted, secrets are revealed and the connections between the murders grow." -- from www.facets.org. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 632
Clandestine childhood. 2011. Film Movement series. 1 videodisc (110 min.). Juan lives in secret. Just like his mum, his dad and his adored uncle Beto, outside his home he has another name. At school, Juan is known as Ernesto. And he meets María, who only has one name. Based on true facts, set in the Argentina of 1979, this film is "one about love". Juan lives in clandestinely. Just like his mum, his dad and his adored uncle Beto, outside his home he has another name. At school, Juan is known as Ernesto. And he meets María, who only has one name. Based on true facts, set in the Argentina of 1979, this film is "one about love". HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2672
Cuesta abajo. 1934. Carlos Gardel en DVD. 1 videodisc (74 min.). A student runs away to Europe with a woman. It doesn't take him long to discover that she frequently deceives him and spends his money carelessly. Even then, he can't seem to leave her, something stronger than love seems to keep them together. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10361
Doña Bárbara.1998. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Doña Bárbara, feared for her witchcraft, becomes involved in a land dispute with Santos Luzardo, a city lawyer who has come to take charge of his family's property. Both she and her daughter then fall in love with him. DVD 3997
Figli/hijos. 2001. Cine argentino para todos. 1 videodisc (110 min.). A story of the past catching up with the present. Raul and Victoria Ramos' tranquil, bourgeois life is suddenly turned upside down when Rosa, a young Argentine woman, arrives at their home in Milan and claims that Javier, their son, is her long -lost twin brother. Raul, an ex-military man, is unruffled by the news, but his wife, Victoria, seems afraid of a possible relationship between Rosa and her son. Javier is intrigued by Rosa but refuses to question his family. Eventually however, Rosa drags Javier with her to search for the truth about what happened to their parents during Argentina's dirty war, and Javier faces a reality far worse than he imagined. DVD 7426
The finger = El dedo. 2011. Global lens film series. 1 streaming video file (93 min.). Hidalgo, a slick and ingratiating scion, is eager for the new post of mayor. Smelling a rat, Baldomero (a beloved leader with a habitually tapping digit) opposes him--and soon turns up dead. His shopkeeper brother vows revenge, keeping Baldomero's severed finger in a jar, at first as a remembrance, but eventually as and absurd icon of leadership that spurs the town to defy crooked elections. Based on real events, the dramatic comedy pokes fun at small town ways while celebrating true democratic values. DVD 11059
Garage Olimpo: Desaparecidos. 1999. 1 videodisc (96 min.). Maria is a middle-class teacher living in a deteriorating mansion in Buenos Aires with her Italian mother. They've rented out rooms for extra money and one of the tenants is Felix, a secret officer assigned to watch her. One day Maria is kidnapped and taken to Garage Olimpo, one of the many undercover detention places at the time, where she is brutally interrogated. Her only hope is through Felix who is in love with her and is willing to do anything to win her approval, even if it means lying. DVD 7387
Herencia = Inheritance. 2001. 1 videodisc (94 min.). Orlinda is an Italian immigrant who arrived in Argentina after World War II searching for the lost love of her life. Hardened by years of loss and loneliness she is taken aback when a young German man enters her restaurant looking for a job and the love of his life. DVD 9575
Hermanas Sisters. 2005. 1 videodisc (90 min.). Two sisters torn apart by military dictatorship in Argentina meet in Texas after a 9 year separation. DVD 9494
El hijo de la novia = Son of the bride. 2001. 1 videodisc (125 min.). Rafael is a 42-year-old divorced father and restaurant owner who is overwhelmed with life. He feels guilty that he doesn't visit his mother, who is stricken with Alzheimer's disease; he lives in his father's shadow; he doesn't spend enough time with his daughter and he can't commit to his girlfriend. When a series of unexpected events happen, Rafael re-evaluates his life. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 564
La historia oficial = The official story. 1985. 1 videodisc (114 min.). An Argentine teacher lives in blissful ignorance of the evils perpetrated by her country's government. Over time, she begins to suspect that her adopted daughter may have been the child of a murdered political prisoner. When she attempts to unearth the truth, her investigation reveals levels of political corruption so abhorrent that the illusions of her past life are irrevocably shattered. DVD 44
Historias mínimas = Intimate stories. 2002. 1 videodisc (94 min.). Nothing will stop three neighbors from reaching San Julian, where they have been promised either fame, love, or redemption. Although they encounter detours along the way, they ultimately get what they wanted, but it will come in unexpected ways. DVD 2510
La hora de los hornos: Notas y testimonios sobre el neocolonialismo la violencia y la liberación. 1966-1968. 2 videodiscs (248 min.). A 1960s filmic manifesto on the liberation struggle being waged throughout Latin America, using Argentina as a historical model. DVD 3118
Iluminados por el fuego = Blessed by fire. 2005. 1 videodisc (100 min.). After learning of a former infantry mate's attempted suicide, journalist Esteban returns to the Falkland Islands (or in Argentina, known as the Malvinas) to confront the horrors he experienced as an eighteen-year-old soldier. Presents the harrowing story of a group of young men sent to fight an un-winnable war and left to bear its emotional scars. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 9522
Juan Moreira. 1973. Clásicos del cine argentino. 1 videodisc (105 min.). Tells the legend of Juan Moreira, an Argentine folk hero. Although actual police records of the 1860s depict him as a criminal, this film depicts him as a decent man who became an outlaw after he was wrongly sent to prison, and was then used by warring political elements until his murder. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7134
Kamchatka. 2002. 1 videodisc (103 min.). In 1976, during the time of the "disappeared ones" in Argentina, two boys are moved to the countryside by their parents in an effort to keep the family together as long as possible. DVD 4689
El lado oscuro del corazón = The dark side of the heart. 1992. 1 videodisc (125 min.). Oliverio is a narcissistic young poet in search of the perfect woman, claiming he will not "tolerate a woman who cannot fly." He meets a prostitute who can fly but prefers to keep their relationship a business arrangement. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 5835
Leonera = Lion's den. 2008. 1 videodisc (113 min.). Julia gives birth to a son after she is sent to the penitentiary for the murder of her lover. Fellow inmate Marta becomes her ally, while her mother Sofia is her opponent. As Marta attempts to teach Julia how to be a mother in the least appropriate place, her mother attempts to gain custody so the child can grow up outside of prison. The duel between Julia and her mother expresses the dilemma of what is better for the child, life with his mother in prison, or without her, but in freedom. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 8447
La mujer sin cabeza = The headless woman. 2008. 1 videodisc (87 min.). A bourgeois woman is driving alone on a dirt road when she becomes distracted and runs over something. In the days following this jarring incident, she becomes dazed and emotionally disconnected from the people and events in her life. She becomes obsessed with the possibility that she may have killed someone. The police confirm that there were no accidents reported in the area and everything returns to normal. That is until a gruesome discovery is made. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 7140
La niña santa = The holy girl. 2004. 1 videodisc (ca. 104 min.). The Holy Girl poignantly captures the lives of two teenager girls, Amalia, daughter to the owner of the hotel, and the girl's best friend Josefina, as they adjust to their growing sexuality and religious passion. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1624
Nueve reinas = Nine queens. 2000. 1 videodisc (115 min.). "Welcome to a world of suspicion, betrayal and intrigue, where two small-time grifters team up to pull off a big-time score involving a set of valuable counterfeit stamps known as the Nine Queens. But when the rules of the con game unexpectedly change, the two crooks find themselves pitted against each other in this taut psychological thriller in which neither the players, nor the audience, knows for sure who is playing whom." --from container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 467
Un oso rojo. 2002. 1 videodisc (88 min.). After seven years in prison for murder and armed robbery, "Oso" is released on parole and returns to his hometown, a depressed suburb of Buenos Aires. He knows that his wife Natalia has moved on and is living with another man, but he's determined to establish a relationship with his young daughter Alicia and to collect the money owed to him by a local crime boss. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 1182
Our disappeared = Nuestros desaparecidos. 2008. 1 videodisc (99 min.). "Via a casual Google search, director Juan Mandelbaum discovered that Patricia, a long-lost ex-girlfriend from Argentina, was among the thousands kidnapped, tortured, and "disappeared" by Argentina's military dictatorship of 1976-83. Juan embarked on a journey to find out what happened to Patricia and others he knew that disappeared, re-examining his own choices along the way. Using rare archival footage, the film evokes the longing for a revolution that would transform Argentina. As he shares dramatic stories told by parents, siblings, friends, and children of the disappeared, Juan grieves their tragic losses"--Container. DVD 8156
The prize = El Premio. 2011. Global lens film series. 1 streaming video file (99 min.). At school we are exposed to the overwhelming mediocrity of fascism and its ridiculous ceremonies. I am seven years old. I go to school. I know I must not reveal my true identity to the other kids. I've been told that my family's safety depends on my silence. I'm forced to lie. I lie, just as they told me. I manage to make them believe my lies. I desperately try to look like all the others but now my mother feels sand and despises me. I am wicked and stupid and make her suffer. DVD 11063 and Streaming video.
Raymundo. 2002. 1 videodisc (128 min.). A documentary film about the life and work of Raymundo Gleyzer, Argentine filmmaker, kidnapped and murdered by that country's military dictatorship in 1976. Through Gleyzer's life and films, we follow the story of Latin American revolutionary cinema and the liberation struggles of the '60s and '70s. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 6216
El secreto de sus ojos = The secret in their eyes. 2009. 1 videodisc (129 min.). A crime-thriller about judicial cover-ups and corruption in Argentina, told through flashbacks. DVD 1704
El ultimo verano de la Boyita = The last summer of la Boyita. 2008. 1 videodisc (93 min.). Young Jorgelina feels estranged from her boy-crazy older sister, who has entered adolescence and doesn't want to hand around with little kids anymore. Finding refuge in their Boyita camper-van, Jorgelina travels with her father to the countryside, where her lifelong playmate Mario is undergoing some unexpected changes of his own. DVD 7789
La venganza del sexo = The curious Dr. Humpp. 1967. 1 videodisc (87 min.). Mad scientist kidnaps copulating couples to drain their vital fluids for an elixir of eternal youth. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 2934
The window. 2009. Film Movement series. 1 videodisc (77 min.). "It is a significant day for 80-year-old Antonio. His estranged son is coming to visit and all must be perfect. There will be a special champagne toast; an embrace; warm words that may finally bridge the gap between them. But first, Antonio must wait. Bedridden, he looks out his window at the Patagonian landscape and sees the past and present, while sensing the future. He escapes the eyes of his faithful caretakers and leaves the house for what might be a last walk in his fields, inhaling the scent of the land that has been his life."--Container. HOME USE COLLECTION DVD 10789
XXY. 2007. Film Movement series . 1 videodisc (90 min.). The pick-up artist: Olli only wants to have noncommittal sex, but that becomes difficult when he meets the 6-year-old daughter of his one-night stand. XXY: The dramatic story of a 15-year-old intersex adolescent born with what the doctors call 'ambiguous genitalia,' whose parents moved from Buenos Aires to an isolated cabin outside of Piriápolis, Uruguay, to protect their child from prejudice. DVD 4085 and Streaming video.