Ixcanul Volcano – Canterbury Film Society

The Canterbury Film Society returns tonight to its favourite haunt - the Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū in Montreal Street. Doors open at 7pm and screenings start at 7.30pm with a short introduction. Beer, wine, mulled wine ($5) and home-baked goods ($2) are on sale for those who wish to come early to socialise*.

There is easy parking in the central city on Mondays - free street parking after 6pm and a CCC carpark under the Gallery (first hour is free till end of August). There are a limited number of bars and restaurants open on Monday night, but Fiddlesticks in Worcester Boulevard is open and serves great meals and snacks. (*Outside food or drink is not to be brought into the Gallery. Thank you for your understanding.)

We're celebrating post-Covid normalcy and our long-anticipated return to the Gallery so tonight we'll be offering our members a free drink and raffle ticket. (The raffle will be drawn after the presentation.) This screening is a members-only event but we have membership prices to suit every wallet, including generous discounts for students and youth. A $30 FlexiPass offers entry to three films of your choice, has no expiry date and may be shared with friends. New memberships can be purchased online beforehand or by cash/Eftpos at our membership table in the Gallery foyer.
Tonight's 2015 film is a gorgeous drama about Guatemala’s active Pacaya volcano, which is a symbol of both ancient traditions and modern threats. It's an absorbing, beautifully shot film about the consequences of a peasant girl’s strategy to avoid an arranged marriage. Reviewers note: “Richly atmospheric and steeped in Mayan folklore, director Jayro Bustamante’s film seems at first to have emerged from another age, though the setting turns out to be contemporary. The drama centres on the choices facing María, a 17-year-old Kaqchikel Maya who works with her parents on a coffee plantation in the shadow of the eponymous volcano. She is set to be married to the farm’s foreman, a loveless match that will at least protect the livelihood of her parents. But María is secretly working on other plans that will take her away from traditional life – and towards a startling contradiction of the natural order as she understands it.

Bustamante grew up in the region of the Kaqchikel Maya in Guatemala and returned there to make his film, holding workshops, asking people to tell stories from their own lives and experiencing living conditions of the Maya at close range. But Dickens might have taught him about the power of pathos. The persuasive authenticity and sombre observation of social realities in this first film from Guatemala mark it as one of the year’s most distinctive from all of Latin America.” — NZIFF 2015
For more information about our 2020 programme and membership options, to view the trailer and request text or email reminders about our weekly or special events, go to our website – link above.
CFS brochures may be uplifted from the Christchurch Art Gallery, city libraries, WEA, Lumière and Alice Cinemas, and Addington Coffee Co-op.

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Kā mihi Canterbury Film Society Committee
021-405-039