Cinema: Tears and rain
26 / 6 / 06
More Tyneside Cinema ¡VAMOS! film season.
On a rainy Sunday afternoon, the emotional wallop of the ending of the Chilean film Machuca about events immediately prior to and after the coup of 1973 brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience at the Tyneside Cinema. Many thanks to local immigration lawyer David Gray for bringing history to life by sharing his experiences of working with Chilean refugees who settled in Scotswood in the 1970s. As he reminded us “Every refugee has a story that deserves to be told” and all too often their voices are ignored or distorted by the media. Films can help inform the public where these people came from and why. Many have made highly positive contributions to our communities. The Chileans were instrumental in the development of the Red Herring worker’s co-operative, shop and restaurant in Fenham which is sadly missed.
Whilst England and Ecuador went head to head, there was more rain outside but a steamy atmosphere inside the Tyneside for the violent, passionate, erotic film Cidade Baixa, a slice of Brazilian working-class life set in the northern coastal state of Bahia, where two friends fall in love with the same woman.
These films were screened at the Tyneside Cinema as part of the Contemporary Latin American film cycle.