Miami, June 3, 2022 – For the third consecutive year, the Koubek Center at Miami Dade College, and the Spanish Cultural Center of Miami, will present a selection of films from the Madrid Film and Human Rights Festival. The event will take place at 8 p.m. Friday and Satuday, June 24 – 25, at the Koubek Center. All films will have subtitles in Spanish and/or English.
The Festival, now in its seventh season, is a showcase for independent cinema addressing themes that are included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The selection criteria is, in part, a response to the threat to human rights posed by the rise of authoritarian political trends in the world, which in recent years has only increased.
This year’s event will feature”Garbage” (Philippines), “Breathe” (Ireland), “Peur Bleu” (Lebanon) and “Casa” (Spain), as well as the documentary film “Covid Nurse” (USA). The themes range from organ trafficking and A.I. to bullying, LGBT issues and the heroic work of nurses in the early days of the pandemic.
As part of the presentation, the Koubek Center and the Spanish Cultural Center will collaborate with local academic and non-academic organizations to discuss various topics, including communication, arts and philosophy, languages, social sciences with MDC’s Honors College at the Padron Campus, MDC’s Institute for Civic Engagement and Democracy and International Solidarity Institute for Human Rights.
PROGRAM
Basurero (Garbage Man, Philippines) tells the story of a Filipino fisherman who works in an urban fishing village on the outskirts of Manila. Desperate for cash, Bong dumps bodies into the ocean for the faceless vigilantes of the drug war. Guilt and tension mount when murders strike close to home.
Breathe (Respira, Ireland) An LGBT-themed short film that tells the story of Patrick and Francie, father and son from the Irish traveling community. Patrick wants his son to be a tough boxer like him, but Francie is not the macho type. He is quite the opposite, and Patrick is determined to mold him in his own image. Can Patrick learn to love his son in the same way.
Casa (Home, Spain) Teresa, director of a real estate bank, intends to sell one of the many empty apartments they own to a couple, unaware that the buyers have an unexpected relationship with the property.
Complices (Accomplices, Spain) Ana is a fifteen-year-old who seems to have a normal life at school. But there is a harsh hidden reality: for years, she has been cruelly and repeatedly bullied before the indifference of her classmates and tutors. Her daily life has become unbearable torture.
COVID Nurse (Enfermera de COVID, USA) This documentary focuses on nurses from the Seattle-area hospitals, among the first in the U.S. to receive Covid-19 patients. As it follows the story from dusk to dawn, this short film is an intimate portrait of a night on the front lines of the pandemic.
Me, The Human (Yo, El Humano, Bulgaria) A man falls in love with the girl who is his guide at a tech event. As it turns out that she is a robot. Through their bond, the man begins to doubt his humanity.
Peur Bleu (Lebanon) Secretly, in a hospital in a Lebanese village, Lucie, a nurse, with the help of her colleague Anwar, work in an organ-trafficking scheme.
Visibles (Visible, Spain) Society has created a stereotype of the LGBTI community in which its members are fashionable, wealthy, fun-loving and never over 40. So, where are the older people?
Volcán (Volcano, Spain) What would you do if you woke up one morning and an invisible volcano had swept everything away, and the world around you had nothing to do with what you knew?
My Brother’s Keeper (Guardian de Mi Hermano, England) Mohamedou Ould Salahi, a former Guantánamo detainee, and his guard, Steve Wood, reunite in Mauritania 13 years after last seeing each other. The encounter rekindles an unlikely relationship that profoundly changed their lives.
WHAT: Madrid Film and Human Rights Festival
WHEN: Friday and Saturday, June 24 – 25, at 8 p.m.
WHERE: MDC’s Koubek Center Theatre
2705 SW 3rd Street
Free admission and parking. Register at https://www.squadup.com/events/vi-festival-de-cine-y-derechos-humanos-de-madrid—koubek-center–cce?legacy=0
For more information, visit www.koubekcenter.org.
About the Koubek Center at MDC
A South Florida landmark with a long and rich history as a cultural center, Koubek Center is dedicated to building community through the arts. For several decades, the center has offered a wide variety of activities, including workshops, art exhibits, plays, literary readings and concerts. It is a place where local artists and arts organizations can explore and experiment, collaborate and share their work with the community. Koubek Center has a 200-seat theater, a large garden, classrooms, and multipurpose and rehearsal spaces. It was built in 1929 by Austrian businessman John J. Koubek as a gift to his wife. The site was later donated to the University of Miami and acquired by Miami Dade College in 2011. www.koubekcenter.org.
Miami Dade College is an equal access/equal opportunity institution which does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, marital status, age, religion, national origin, disability, veteran’s status, ethnicity, pregnancy, sexual orientation or genetic information. Additional information may be obtained by contacting the College’s Equity Officer: Dr. Joy C. Ruff, at (305) 237-2577 (Voice) or 711 (Relay Service). jruff@mdc.edu