The New Americans (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)Here's an absolutely transformative documentary.
Why "transformative"? Because immigration and cultural diversity are two enormously important issues right now and we need media like this documentary series that will transform our assumptions about immigrants.
Thanks to Facets Video, Gita Saedi's entire 411-minute production of "The New Americans" now is available now on DVD. It's well worth the investment, because Saedi spent a long time and an enormous number of miles exploring this broad spectrum of real-life stories involving immigrants.
As the main photo on the cover suggests, we learn about a poor Hispanic-American family struggling through the maze of American immigration hurdles. Their story is all the more poignant because they are trying to do all the right things in their move to America.
But there's so much more here!
We meet a prominent African family, reduced to refugee status because of their tribe's work on behalf of human rights, now trying to re-establish themselves in the U.S. The family quickly discovers problems at nearly every turn, even though Americans celebrate the kind of brave activism that wound up pushing this family toward our shores.
We also meet Dominican baseball players facing life-and-death challenges of their own. And, deep in the series we meet an Indian couple moving to the U.S. for professional work -- and discovering that American culture is quite different than what they expected.
The mother of a hopeful pro-baseball player, who lives in poverty in her own homeland, says it all: "Poor people's dreams are very deep things."
They are -- and so is this terrific series.

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About the filmThe New Americans follows four years in the lives of a diverse group of contemporary immigrants and refugees as they journey to start new lives in America. We follow an Indian couple to Silicon Valley through the dot-com boom and bust. A Mexican meatpacker struggles to reunite his family in rural Kansas. Two families of Nigerian refugees (including the sister of slain Ogoni activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa) escape government persecution. Two Los Angeles Dodgers prospects follow their big dreams of escaping the barrios of the Dominican Republic. A Palestinian woman who marries into a new life in Chicago only to discover in the wake of September 11, she cannot leave behind the pain of her homeland's conflict.Kartemquin assembled a team of talented directors including the creators of Hoop Dreams, Who Killed Vincent Chin, and Vietnam, Long Time Coming. The detailed portraits that resulted were woven into a seven-hour miniseries that presents a kaleidoscopic picture of immigrant life and a first impression of the U.S. that few born in America can imagine.Extras: Additional Scenes, Spanish Secondary Audio Track and Where Are They Now Slideshow.

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The Kiss You Gave Me (El Beso Que Me Diste) (2000) Review

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(More customer reviews)Great title right? Not so great movie. The movie is not that bad, for a first attempt.
The story takes place in a fictional Puerto Rico that has gained independence from the United States (so has Quebec). Angela (played by Maricarmen Aviles) has broken up with her husband; he kidnaps their kid. Pedro Juan (played by Jimmy Navarro) is Angela's teen love and now a representative of Puerto Rico in Quebec. He helps Angela get her son back and in the meantime, they rekindle their affair.
The movie fails in a number of levels. First, the plot of the movie is weak, has been done a thousand times and the only thing new about it was that Puerto Rico was independent. The movie was badly edited and rushed, trying to cram everything into 90 minutes. The acting is not terrible (it is not good either, and honestly, I was expecting better). But the actors cannot do much with what they are given.
So, the movie is somewhat entertaining but you may feel frustrated as to the plot, the pacing, and the acting.


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Que Familia Mas Normal (2004) Review

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(More customer reviews)I recomend this movie to teachers of Spanish who want to include in their selection a light-hearted movie with family as a topic at its heart. The actors' accents and idiomatic expressions are true to their characters and authentic: Fernando Allende is Mexican, just like his character, Armando Gutiérrez. Nydia Caro is Puerto Rican, just like her character Lulli. The main characters' mothers have come to join their household; their names are the same the VIrgin Mary has in Mexico (Guadalupe) and in Puerto Rico (Providencia). The Gutiérrez's son is engaged to the daughter of a Cuban father and an Argentinian mother; their daughter, to a very dark-skinned gringo. They converge in their house to celebrate theire son's engagement. The situations and crises the characters go through are very comical and it all has a happy ending.
The family is modern, upper middle class but tradtions and cultural references to the different countries represented in it are there. The enunciation of the characters is clear enough for intermediate and advanced classes in Spanish.It has subtitles to help those in lower level classes. The script is more suitable for a half-hour sitcom than a movie and the editing isn't the best. Its value is more in cultural and linguistic richness.
This is a movie for those who want to see a different aspect of Hispanic cultures, a fresh modern one not based on corruption, politics, drug-trafficking, and guerrilla movements in poverty-ridden backgrounds.

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Cultures hilariously collide in this crazy, warm-hearted comedy about the often perilous journey toward family harmony. Popular film and TV star Fernando Allende is Armando, a suave radio disc jockey trying to hide his sexy secretary from his jealous wife. Meanwhile, he's caught in the unrelenting power struggle between his mother and his mother-in-law, both from very different and equally proud cultures. If that's not tough enough, his son plans to marry the daughter of a sophisticated Argentine mother and a streetwise Cuban father who add a unique layer to the family's multicultural blend. Un divertidisimo choque de culturas es el tema de esta alocada y calida comedia acerca de los peligros que abundan en la busqueda de la armonia familiar.La popular estrella de cine y television Fernando Allende es Armando, un meloso disc-jockey que trata de esconder a su sexy secretaria de la celosa de su mujer.Entretanto, se encuentra en medio de una implacable guerra de voluntades entre su madre y su suegra, ambas de culturas muy diferentes e igualmente orgullosas.Y como si fuera poco, su hijo quiere casarse con la hija de una sofisticada dama argentina y de un padre cubano astuto, que le agregan un matiz unico a la mezcla multicultural de esta familia.

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