Frágil equilibrio (Delicate Balance)Guillermo García López / Chile, Mexico, Spain, Uruguay, Japan / 2016 / 81 min
Spanish, English, French, and Japanese with English subtitles
With José Alberto MujicaCentered around an extensive interview with Jose “Pepe” Mujica, the former President of Uruguay who gained notoriety on the world stage as a rare politician: one that lives according to the ideas and principles he preaches, Delicate Balance is a contemplative essay on the everyday reality of globalization.Mujica’s ideas about modern society, where economic interests prevail over human values, are used to connect three stories: A Japanese salaryman in Tokyo, a sub-Saharan community trying to cross the borders into Europe, a family evicted from their own home in Spain. Three stories intertwined on three different continents.The words of the President Mujica — a humble, soft-spoken figure who looks like a retired farm laborer rather than a retired politico — structure this clear-sighted documentary about the socio-economic mess we’re making of our world, but it also comes with suggestions from Mujica about how to change it for the better.Ultimately, Delicate Balance is a proposal for change, from the particular to the general, that offers a powerful message of optimism for the future. This film is a reflection on the path that the human race is taking, on its habits and its relationship with the world. Palomitas Cineclub Winter 2020 Film Festival The Palomitas Cineclub, organized by graduate students of the Romance Languages & Literatures Department, has been awarded a Spanish Film Club Festival Grant to sponsor public screenings of contemporary Iberoamerican film at the University of Michigan. All films will be screened in their original languages with English subtitles. The series will be free and open to the public. Combining the funds from the Spanish Film Club Festival Grant with additional financial support from within the university, we will screen six contemporary Latin American feature films and documentaries between February 26 and April 3 on Wednesday evenings at 7 pm in the Modern languages Building, 1220 (Lecture Room 1):Frágil equilibrio (Guillermo García Lopez, 2016), Tempestad (Tatiana Huezo, 2016), Ixcanul, Volcán (Jayro Bustamante, 2015), La soledad (Jorge Thielen-Armand, 2016), El abrazo de la serpiente (Ciro Guerra, 2015) and Pájaros de verano (Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego, 2018). Each screening will be followed by an informal discussion session during which the audience is invited to discuss the film.We welcome everyone to participate in a space of cultural engagement where undergraduate and graduate students can come together to practice their language skills and partake in critical discussions of cinema. *The Spanish Film Club Festival Grant was made possible with the support of Pragda, SPAIN arts & culture, and the Secretary of State for Culture of Spain.