El abrazo de la serpienteCiro Guerra / Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela / 2015 / 125 minA breathtaking ethnographic odyssey through the heart of the Colombian Amazon, Embrace of the Serpent  is the epic story of the first contact, approach, betrayal and, eventually, friendship, between Karamakate, an amazonian shaman, last survivor of his people, and two scientists that, over the course of 40 years, become the first men to travel the Northwest Amazon in search of a sacred and difficult-to-find psychedelic Yakruna plant. With nine different languages spoken during the course of the film, this hypnotic meditation on the beauty of nature and effects of colonialism is presented with an uncommon sense of curiosity rarely seen. The crisp black and white photography captures the extraordinary landscapes with a haunting, almost mythical sense of wonder, while the balance between documentary-style realism and dreamlike mysticism makes for a truly poetic cinematic experience. ACADEMY AWARD® BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM NOMINEE 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.