From the Windy City Times

Latina filmmakers on companies, movie projects
by Carrie Maxwell, Windy City Times
2012-03-28

 

Linda Garcia Merchant has been making films for the last six years and with her latest productions, Thresholds and The A Word, she covers two controversial topics—teen violence and abortion, respectively.

Her newest production company, Las Pilonas—which she formed a year ago with sisters, Yovani Flores and Evon Flores Barrera—was behind Thresholds. Voces Primeras—her first production company, which was formed in 2006—backed The A Word.

Merchant, Barrera and Flores grew up in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago and while Flores now resides in Phoenix, Merchant and Barrera still call Chicago home.

Merchant and Flores are both lesbians while Barrera is an ally of the LGBT community.

See the rest of the article at: http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/lgbt/Latina-filmmakers-on-companies-movie-projects/36962.html

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July 2012 Mujeres Iniciando en las Américas Delegation to Guatemala

MIA, Mujeres Iniciando en las Américas

A 10-day Delegation Uniting Guatemalan and U.S. Women and Men, July 22 – August 1, 2012

The Latin American women’s movement is recognized internationally for its advances in combating violence against women. Latin America was the first region in the world where all countries ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the first to formulate a legal instrument explicitly designed to eradicate gender violence: the Convention for the Prevention, Punishment, and Eradication of Violence Against Women. This delegation will meet with civil society organizations and high-ranking officials to investigate impunity and violence against women in Guatemala.

Cost for bearing witness, organizing, and celebrating with us is $1000, including in-country transportation, food, lodging, interpretation, and honorariums for our speakers. Airfare is not included.

A deposit of $100 is due June 1, 2012, and will be non-refundable after June 25, 2012. Deposit will apply toward cost of participation. For more information on MIA’s work and past delegations visit: www.miamericas.info

MIA is a registered 501 (c) 3 non-profit organization. To apply for delegation contact: Justine@miamericas.info

 

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CFP: Gender and Human Rights in the Americas, April 1 Deadline

Call for Proposals: Extended Deadline, April 1

Rethinking Power & Resistance: Gender & Human Rights from Texas to the Transnational Americas

Re-imaginando el Poder y la Resistencia: Género y Derechos Humanos desde Texas hasta las Américas Transnacionales

5-6 octubre 2012 : Austin, Texas

Conference Date: 5-6 October 2012

Conference Location: Austin, Texas

Rethinking Power and Resistance: Gender and Human Rights from Texas to the Transnational Americas is a two-day conference in which scholars, activists, community organizers, and community members will gather to collaboratively work through some of the dominant themes and tensions within contemporary engagement of human rights language and strategies.

We are looking for work that discusses new movement strategies for gender justice that work at the intersections of citizenship status, ethnicity, gender identity, indigeneity, nationality, race, and sexuality.

We are particularly interested in work that engages and reimagines human rights language (addressing the usefulness of grassroots human rights strategies and/or the harm of neoliberal human rights appropriation) regarding the following issues: Incarceration/Immigration Detention, Forced Displacement and Gentrification, and Gender Violence.

This is a bilingual conference in Spanish and English.

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Film Granito Hailed in Guatemala

From Egla Martinez:

We stepped onto the stage of the Teatro Nacional in Guatemala City as the credits rolled after the long anticipated Guatemala premiere of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (Spanish title: Granito de Arena).  The huge hall was filled to the rafters with 2500 people who rose to give a sustained standing ovation (see the video here), which only increased in volume as the people that appear in the film joined us on stage.  When Maya leader Antonio Caba Caba came up, the crowd erupted.  We are so humbled and gratified by this resounding embrace of Granito by the people of Guatemala.

And in an uncanny juncture with justice, the dictator in Granito, General Efraín Ríos Montt, appeared before a judge the same day as the premiere to petition for his case to be dismissed, and was denied- he will stand trial for genocide.  When we announced the judge’s decision at the premiere, it elicited another burst of applause – Guatemalans have been waiting 30 years for Ríos Montt to face justice.

Already since the March 1 premiere we’ve received dozens of requests to show the film in universities, Maya communities, civil society organizations and churches all over the country.  We are releasing Granito in Spanish and the Maya languages K’iche and Ixil as well.  Along with Granito, we have launched a project with Guatemalan civil society organizations to restore the collective memory of the years of armed conflict, called Granito: Every Memory Matters (Granito: Cada Memoria Cuenta).  The history of those terrible years is not taught in Guatemala, and the goal of this project is to make the historical memory available in a public archive, and raise public awareness so that that history never repeats itself.  If you have a memory of the Guatemalan conflict to share, or know of anyone who might, or just want to take a look and get involved, please visit the project – you can learn more about it by clicking here: granitomem.comPaco de Onís, Pamela Yates, Peter Kinoy, Bea Gallardo

You can purchase the DVD of Granito: How to Nail a Dictator by clicking here.WINNER OF THE CINEMA FOR PEACE AWARD FOR JUSTICE 2012

<iframe src=”Granito at Vimeo></iframe>

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Freedom University Needs Your Help

Welcome to Our New Students! Friends of Freedom University and allies of undocumented youth, Thanks to your continued generosity and support, we’ve welcomed visiting scholars to Athens, Skyped in Pulitzer Prize winner Junot Díaz and author Achy Obejas, provided books for over 35 deserving and hard working students, and, most importantly, ensured that our students made it to class from all over Northeast Georgia. Today we are honored to announce that eight new dynamic students join our Freedom University cohort! They join us from all across metro-Atlanta and contribute not only their passion for education but their many organizing talents as well. They hail from the ranks of the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance, the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, the Immigrant Youth Justice League, and Southerners on New Ground. We are excited to see what they’ll bring to the classroom, and also how they will motivate us toward our ultimate goals of defeating anti-immigrant and anti-student legislation and policy. Will you help us welcome our new students by donating $10 for their books, travel, and organizing expenses? If 80 of our allies pitch in just $10, we will meet our goal of $800 to cover our expenses through April. Freedom University Georgia students and volunteers must continue to lead the fight against bills like SB 458, which would ban undocumented students from all public Georgia campuses.  Our recent press conference on SB 458, and organizing around HB 59, drew students, educators, and allies from all over the state to the Capitol to voice their opposition. Now more than ever we realize how important FU is not only to students seeking education in spite of unjust tuition rates and the Board of Regents’ ban, but also to leading the way toward a more humane state. Will you support our students as they study and fight for their right to higher education?In Solidarity, Freedom University Faculty, Students, and Volunteers 2012-02-28 Elizabeth speaks at Press Conference Opposing SB 458 at Georgia Capitol

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Postdoc Fellowship: Reproductive Politics in the Americas

Hampshire College invites applications for a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in Comparative Reproductive Politics of the Americas.  This Mellon-funded position is one of five to be filled in 2012-13 in cooperation with the Five College Consortium (Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, Smith colleges and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst).  Hampshire College encourages inter-disciplinary teaching and research.  While in residence at Hampshire, the Fellow will participate fully in one of the nation’s most vibrant academic collaborations, including the Five College Reproductive Politics Group comprised of faculty and graduate students working in global reproductive politics, and the annual conference for students and community activists, From Abortion Rights to Social Justice: Building the Movement for Reproductive Freedom.  There is related support from colleagues and library and research facilities at all five campuses, each located within a twenty-minute drive of the others.  Over three years the Fellow will teach six courses, two at Hampshire College, two at Mount Holyoke College, and two at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.  The Fellow will be provided research and teaching mentors on each campus in coordination with Hampshire College which will host the fellowship.

The candidate should have expertise in comparative reproductive politics in the western hemisphere, including the countries of the Americas, with a particular interest in political and juridical aspects of reproductive and sexual rights movements.  Applicants should have research and teaching interests in one or more of the following themes:  transnational social movements that seek to achieve as well as to contest sexual and reproductive rights; factors that facilitate or impede policy reform, legislative action, and grassroots social movements; comparative methodologies; the relationship of political parties and NGOs to reproductive and sexual rights movements; and new forms of social activism that emerge in the wake of civil war and military dictatorship.

The successful candidate must have completed all requirements for a PhD before assuming the fellowship.

Position begins fall 2012.  Review of applications begins March 16, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled.  Hampshire College is committed to building a culturally diverse intellectual community and strongly encourages applications from women and minority candidates.  We offer a competitive salary and comprehensive benefit program, including support for research.  Applicants should send a letter of interest, CV, writing sample, and two letters of reference to via our website at http://jobs.hampshire.edu/

www.hampshire.edu

Hampshire College is an equal opportunity institution, committed to diversity in education and employment

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