Latin American Forum Programme Now Available!

bristol | globalisation | announcement Monday March 05, 2007 00:18 by Kevin - LAF Publicity bristol.laf at gmail dot com

The schedule for the day event at the Bristol Latin American Forum on Saturday March the 10th at the University of Bristol is now packed and ready - feast your eyes on the programme below, including a timetable, and list of workshops and film screenings. The day event is free, but PLEASE remember that places are limited to 100 so if you want to guarantee a place, then get there EARLY. Note also the £6 evening event at The Full Moon on Stokes Croft with top Cuban hip hop artists and Bristol's own 16 piece salsa band!

BRISTOL LATIN AMERICAN FORUM 2007
Day Event Schedule

11am – 6 pm, Dept. of Hispanic Studies, UoB. 15 Woodland Rd, BS8. (enter back of 21).

11.00 – 11.20 Main Lecture Theatre. Introductions – Rogelio Vallejo & Oliver Edwards

11.20 – 12.35 Main Lecture Theatre. Opening Plenary Session
RICHARD SOLLY – Colombia Solidarity Campaign
JOSÉ SAGAZ – Bolivia Solidarity Campaign
Patricia Barrera – facilitator

12.40 – 13.30 WORKSHOPS around site – session 1 - “Foreign Intervention & Local Resistance”

i Coca and international intervention, José Sagaz, Bolivia Solidarity Campaign
ii Coal mining in Latin America and climate change. Richard Solly, Colombia Solidarity Campaign & Claire Hall
iii Multinational corporations and death squads: the violent imposition of global capitalism in Colombia. Lara Coleman, University of Bristol
iv Higher education in Venezuela. Thomas Muhr, Bristol Solidarity with Venezuela
v Economic reform in Latin America: a Colombian case study.
Tony McKeown, Bristol Colombia Solidarity Campaign

13.30 – 14.30 LUNCH in central area provided by Kebele Social Centre

14.30 – 15.20 WORKSHOPS around site – session 2 - “Art, Culture & Identity”

i Hip hop in Cuba: A revolution within the revolution? Obsesión & Los Paisanos, Cuban hip-hop artists
ii The Latin American novel? James Woodall, University of the West of England
iii Muralism and the Mexican Revolution. Peter Lambert, Bath University
iv Making Latin America visible – Latin American cinema today.
Michael Chanan, University of the West of England
v Music and culture in Mexico. Leonel Perez, student from Mexico

15.20 – 15.50 AFTERNOON BREAK – tea, coffee and cake provided by Kebele Social Centre

15.50 – 16.40 WORKSHOPS around site – session 3 - “Social Movements”

i Popular resistance and workers power in Oaxaca. David Broder, Kiptik/ No Sweat
ii Venezuela – alternatives to neo-liberalism in the 20th Century. Thomas Muhr, Bristol Solidarity with Venezuela
iii The struggle for autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples: case study of the Mapuche. Nina Deen & Reynaldo Mariqueo, Mapuche International Link, with input from Stuart Griffin on the Mayans (Guatemala Solidarity)
iv Women in Nicaragua. Gladys Urtecho Cuadra (MEC) & Bristol Link with Nicaragua
v The struggle for autonomy and self-determination of indigenous peoples: case study of the Guarani in Brazil. Tony Waterhouse, The Trust for the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas (TIPA)

16.45 – 18.00 Main Lecture Theatre. Closing Plenary Session
TARIQ ALI – political commentator and author of 'Pirates of the Caribbean - Axis of Hope' (Verso Press)
FELIX PLASENCIA – Deputy Minister at the Venezuelan Embassy in London
Matthew Brown - facilitator

FILMS

A Land with Many Missions, 25min, DVD, Venezuela

Plan Colombia: Cashing in on the Drug War Failure, 2003, 57min, DVD, United States, Free-Will Productions
with introduction by Martin Summers, Bristol Colombia Solidarity Campaign
This hard-hitting and well produced documentary analyses the $3billion 'aid' package to Colombia known as Plan Colombia. The film shows the failure of Plan Colombia in the U.S. “War on Drugs”, suggesting instead that it is a smokescreen to secure access to Colombia's oil and natural resources by further militarizing an already war-torn country.

*Hasta Siempre, 2005, 57min, DVD, Cuba, Rice N Peas Films
with introduction by Geoff Baker, Royal Holloway
Cuba embraced tourism in the early 90's as a means of surviving the collapse of the Soviet Union. As a result, the Island has begun to witness many changes which now threaten the integrity of the revolution: racial discrimination, prostitution, consumerism, and the re-emergence of class divisions. Hasta Siempre takes the viewer on a journey through the lives of ordinary Cubans, examining the results of the Cuban revolution from the perspective of the Cuban people, and asks the question: Can the revolution survive after the death of Fidel Castro?

*Video in the Villages, 1987, 10min, DVD, Brazil
*The Spirit of TV, 1990, 15min, DVD, Brazil
with introduction by Michael Chanan, University of the West of England

Unser America, 2005, 84min, DVD spanish with English subtitles, Nicaragua
with introduction by Gladys Urtecho Cuadra (MEC)
Our America is a gripping, illuminating, one-of-a-kind documentary in which director Konrad makes an emotional return to Nicaragua – the country where she'd shot another film 20 years before in the midst of the Sandinista uprising. Older and (perhaps) wiser, she embarks on a quest to find one particular female rebel-soldier who she'd filmed quoting from a particular poem by Nicaragua's legendary poet, Ruben Dario. Along the way she records her impressions of the country's past and present, and interviews a wide range of interested parties.

*Latin America in Co-Production, 48min
with introduction by Libia Villazana, University of the West of England
The documentary is a journey through the conditions of international film production involving Latin American countries. It follows the case of the Spanish-Peruvian film Mariposa Negra (Francisco Lombardi, 2005) to unravel and expose what is behind the scenes in these types of productions. In so doing, I disclose some of the malpractices of IBERMEDIA, the leading institution that offers financial support to film co-production in Latin America.

Worker-Occupied Factories in Argentina, 57min
with introduction by the Solidarity Federation
Argentine journalist Marie Trigona uses three examples to explain the nature of worker occupied factories in her native country, and discusses both the problems they face and ways in which they have tried to surmount them. Her presentation is followed by open ended questions from the floor by trades union activists. The session offers crucial insight into self empowerment by Argentine workers, in their effort to create a fully participatory economy.