20.10. ICAIC Jubilee seminar
Orion (Eerikinkatu 15) at 14:00.
Guests: Director Fernando Peréz Valdés and Sari Selander.
Alfredo Guevara, former ICAIC director for three decades, defined the institute as a “non-stop seminar” of discussion and creation. The special programmes, newsreels, movie debates as well as the tireless production of animation, fictional and documental films were all instrumental in ICAIC's serving its original purpose as defined by its founders, to promote the cultural refinement of the Cuban public. Our guest of honour, Cuban director and one of the protagonists of this creative process, Fernando Pérez Valdés, will share his visions and experiences in a conversation with Sari Selander, program director in charge of Latin-American cinema.

20.10. “Representations of La Virgen de Guadalupe in Chicana Art”
Studia Latinoamericana, Helsinki University (Unioninkatu 38 A, lecture room 205) at 18:00-20.00.
Lecturer: Eva Zetterman (University of Karlstads).

More than 30 million Mexicans live in the United States. Even if they are in majority in many areas, they are still considered a marginal group. Cinemaissí festival is organising two seminars (20.10. and 23.10.) on the Mexican-American so-called Chicano culture and art with particular focus on female Chicana artists.
Read more on Chicanas

21.10. Human Rights in Colombia
Dubrovnik 17:00
Minga, el camino de la palabra (Venezuela, 2008, 27')
Panel discussion in cooperation with Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission
Guest: Maria Ruth Sanabria Rueda.

The short film (27 minutes) by Hugo Gerdel and Milton Trujillo documents ”Minga”, a march from Cauca to Bogotá in October-November 2008 by the indigenous people of Colombia in defence of their human rights and joined in by other civic organisations.

The film is followed by a debate on the human rights situation and the fate of human rights activists in Colombia. Among the participants will be Maria Ruth Sanabria, Colombian human rights defensor and long-term voluntary as well as a legally appointed councillor on human rights and refugees in the province of Arauca, one of the most violent regions in Colombia, invited by the Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission. She will bring us up to date on the struggle of the Minga and the situation in general in Colombia, where the conflict is linked to environmental issues, drug trade, landmines and food security among others. Colombia is on top of the world statistics as for the number of internally displaced people.

23.10. Mexican-Americans, Chicano/a Culture and the U.S.-Mexico Border
Luckan (Simonkatu 8) at 14:00-16:00.
Asta Kuusinen (University of Helsinki), Eva Zetterman and the anglomexican poet Juana Treviño.
Read more on Chicanas

24.10. The ICAIC Orchestra
Dubrovnik 16:00-16:45
Panel discussion
Guest: Tomás Jimeno.

The music of Las Aventuras de Juan Quin Quin was created and directed by the well-known composer, musician and director, Leo Brouwer, author of the guitar concerto Nº 5 Helsinki. Tomás Jimeno, a long-time professor at the Sibelius Academy and the Pop & Jazz Conservatory, who has taught privately a great number of Finnish percussionists, was an ICAIC musician in the 60's and 70's and participated in the musicalization of Juan Quin Quin under the direction of Leo Brouwer. In a chat with sound engineer Rolando Camilo, Tomás Jimeno treats us to the musicalization adventures of the ICAIC in those days.

25.10. MST in Brasil
Dubrovnik
14:30 MST: o movimento sem terra e a maior marcha do Brasil (Brasil, 2008, 69')
Panel discussion 15:50-17:00 in cooperation with Friends of the Landless association
Guests: Markus Kröger, Noora Ojala ja Pertti Simula

The document by Gibby Zobel (69 min.) takes us deep inside the structures of the Landless Worker's Movement, and acquaints us with its origins and its current position as a political force, while helping us understand why Brasil is a country of such rampant social inequality. According to the documentary, there is, however, hope of a better future for the peasants.
After the film, a debate on the documentary and the Brazilian Landless Movement is organised in cooperation with the association Friends of the Landless and Cinemaissi, with Markus Kröger, Noora Ojala and Pertti Simula among the participants.