Free Events: Celebrate! The Jewish Experience in Spanish-Speaking Countries

Here’s a big, unique event that mixes free and paid activities and takes place in multiple venues in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos from November 5 (2009) through the 15th.

¡Celébrate! The Jewish Experience in Spanish-Speaking Countries is “[a]n unprecedented week of film, music, art, theater, food, exhibits and lectures highlighting the extraordinary historic and contemporary journey of the Jewish people after their expulsion from Spain in 1492.” Organized by the New Mexico Anti-Defamation League, with major funding by the Isaac Liberman Foundation, the event is the first of its kind in New Mexico and looks to have some fascinating components. We’re choosing to highlight the free events, but we highly recommend you read the flyer for other, paid events that might be of interest.

Free events:

• Thursday, November 5, 7:00pm: Opening night film and reception – El último Sefardí (The Last Sephardic Jew); National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque; free but tickets required*
• Saturday, November 7, 5:00 – 7:00pm: Art exhibit opening reception – “Unified Field: The Border”; El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe
• Sunday, November 8, 3:00pm: Film – Un Beso a Esta Tierra (A Kiss to This Land); National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque; free but tickets required*
• Tuesday, November 10, 5:30 – 7:00pm: History exhibit opening reception – “Voyages to Freedom: 500 Years of Jewish Life in Latin America and the Caribbean”; The Ronald Gardenswartz Jewish Community Center, Albuquerque
• Thursday, November 12, 1:00 – 5:00pm: Conference – Unlikely Neighbors? The Jewish Experience in the “New World”; light refreshments served; register through the UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute website; Albuquerque
  
• Thursday, November 12, 7:00pm: Film – Adio Kerida (Good-bye My Love, The Jews of Cuba); National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque; free but tickets required*
• Friday, November 13, 8:00pm: Service – Sephardic Shabbat Service; Congregation Nahalat Shalom, Albuquerque
• Sunday, November 15, 4:00pm: Lecture – “The Jewish Experience in Latin America,” presented by Ilan Stavans, the world’s leading essayist on Jewish-Latino culture; National Hispanic Cultural Center, Albuquerque; free but tickets required*

*Tickets are available from the NHCC Box Office, 505-724-4771, or through Ticketmaster (but be forewarned that Ticketmaster may assess service charges).

–Elizabeth Hanes

Free: Made-in-New Mexico Film Retrospective

Normally, we don’t run “free with paid admission” items because…well, they’re not exactly “free” if you have to pay for admission, right?

But this one’s a little different.

The State Fair is offering a fabulous event for film buffs. In conjunction with the New Mexico Film Museum (wait, we have a state film museum?), the State Fair will present daily screenings of films made in New Mexico over the past 100 years. How cool is that?!

The schedule includes some of the most famous movies filmed here, like Independence Day and No Country for Old Men, but we’re more excited about the oldies: Ace in the Hole, The Left-Handed Gun, and, of course, the classic Salt of the Earth.

In all, 33 films will be screened during the fair, with three screenings per day at 10:30am, 2:00pm, and 7:00pm. All showings will be held in the 300-seat auditorium in the African American Performing Arts Center. The news release from the State Fair does not specify how seating will be handled. Presumably, it’s first-come, first-served, so get there early to nab the best seats.

If you take advantage of the Family 5-Pack ticket offer, you can attend three screenings in one day for a mere $4 admission fee. Not to mention experiencing everything else the fair has to offer.

The 2009 New Mexico State Fair begins September 11. The fairgrounds is located in the northeast heights, bounded by San Pedro, Central Ave, Louisiana, and Lomas Blvd.

–Elizabeth Hanes

FREE SHORT FILM SCREENING AND TALK

Enjoy a free screening of the short film Chimayo (Guero), followed by a discussion with screenwriter Art Corriveau, at 516 ARTS on Saturday, February 21, at 8:00pm.

This is not a documentary, but rather the narrative story of high school senior Justin, who loses his mother, winds up living in Chimayo with his estranged grandmother and ultimately has to choose between “the healing power of community and faith, and the annihilating abyss of drug addiction.” The film was produced through the New Mexico Filmmakers Intensive and is being screened in conjunction with 516 ARTS’ current exhibition Chicana Badgirls: Las Hociconas.

516 ARTS is located, naturally enough, at 516 Central Ave SW in downtown Albuquerque. Gallery hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 12:00pm – 5:00pm.

–Elizabeth Hanes

Free films: Oh, the horror!

Here’s something fun. The National Hispanic Cultural Center is hosting a mini-retrospective of Spanish horror films. The first offering is titled El cebo, starring Ladislao Vajda and produced in 1959. The NHCC describes it thusly: “A seemingly common and timid man hides a second pathological personality guilty of kidnapping and murdering little girls.”

The series is called “Vampiros, demonios y siniestros (Vampires, Demons and the Goth)” and includes Spanish horror films produced between 1929 and 2005. All films are presented in Spanish with English subtitles. The series showcases one film each Thursday throughout February. What a goulish antidote to all the syrupy Valentine’s Day stuff!

All films are free. Just pick up a ticket at the NHCC box office on the evening of the event. Each show starts at 7:00pm.

WHAT: Free Spanish horror films
WHEN: Thursdays, February 5, 12, 19, 26, at 7:00pm
WHERE: Bank of America Theatre, National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 4th St SW, at the intersection of Avenida Cesar Chavez and 4th St