Hugo Perez is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, whose films often focus on his Cuban-American heritage and the systematic oppression of marginalized people. He was the recipient of the 2009 Estela Award for Documentary Filmmaking presented by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, and his work has frequently appeared on PBS and in film festivals. This series shone a spotlight on his contributions to documentary film and an opportunity to hear him discuss his work as a Cuban filmmaker. This partnership was supported through IU Cinema’s Creative Collaborations program.
Schedule
Friday, October 27, 7:00-8:15 p.m.
This was a virtual film introduction, film screening, and interactive Q&A with writer/director Hugo Perez.
In the spring of 1946, a mass grave was unearthed in the Hungarian village of Abda. One of the 22 decayed bodies found was that of the poet Miklós Radnóti, shot into the grave by Hungarian fascists 18 months earlier. Found in his coat was a small notebook. When examined, the notebook—later named the Bor Notebook—revealed the poet’s last poems. The poems told the story of the last six months of his life, months spent first as slave labor in a Nazi labor camp in Bor, Serbia, and then on a three-month forced march from Serbia to the small village of Abda, where he was killed when he was too weak to continue. Radnóti’s final poems serve as the backbone of "Neither Memory Nor Magic", revealing the story of a poet who continued to write even as he faced certain death—a story almost entirely unknown outside of Hungary. Contains mature content. Writer/director Hugo Perez was present for a virtual conversation and interactive Q&A moderated by IU Media School associate professor Joan Hawkins.
Friday, October 30, 7:00-8:15 p.m.
This was a virtual conversation and interactive Q&A with writer/director Hugo Perez.
In this program, “Portrait of the Artist as a Cuban Filmmaker,” writer/director Hugo Perez shared his experiences producing documentaries in Cuba, making the transition from non-fiction to fiction filmmaking, and his experiences as a filmmaker who’s been described as a ‘Latino Almodóvar.’ Part of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Series.
Sponsors
Curated by Joan Hawkins of Writers Guild of Bloomington, with support from IU Cinema, Ove W Jorgensen Foundation, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Center for Documentary Research and Practice, Cinema and Media Studies, The Media School, IU Hillel, Hungarian Cultural Association, Hungarian Studies Program, Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, Borns Jewish Studies Program, Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, Black Film Center/Archive, African Studies, and the departments of Spanish and Portuguese, English, and African American & African Diaspora Studies.