Pájaros de verano (Birds of Passage)Wayuu, English, and Spanish with English subtitlesWith Carmiña Martínez, José Acosta, Natalia Reyes, Jhon Narváez, Greider Meza, José Vicente Cote, Juan Bautista MartínezACADEMY AWARD® COLOMBIA’S SUBMISSION FOR BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMCristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, the creative team behind Oscar®-nominated Embrace of the Serpent (also available for your SFC festival), return with this inspired mob epic for the ages — a completely fresh take on the origins of the Colombian drug trade, far from Narcos and Escobar, as told through the story of an indigenous Wayúu family.In the 1970s, as an American-fueled marijuana boom hits Colombia, farmers quickly turn into seasoned businessmen starting a narco-trafficking era known as “la Bonanza Marimbera.”In the Guajira desert, one indigenous Wayúu clan takes a leading role. Guided by matriarch Ursula Pushaina, the “Birds of Passage”—drug runners—face the constant risk of violence and incarceration from the outsiders in Northern Colombia. The cultural differences between the native population and the newcomers begin a brutal war that threatens to destroy the Wayúu way of life. As greed, passion, and honor blend together over the decades, the family’s unity, their lives, and their ancestral traditions are all put at stake.A true story, the visually striking Birds of Passage is as much a thriller as it is an anthropological study on the consequences of outside influences to indigenous traditions.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.