Television

Fidel Castro is one of the world's best known and most recognizable political leaders, but he is also among the most mysterious. While Castro became a household name after overthrowing the rule of Fulgenico Batista and became the head of Cuba's new socialist government, little is known of his private life or the man behind the façade of his shaggy beard and omnipresent cigar. Fidel is a documentary by filmmaker Estela Bravo, who combines vintage newsreel footage with exclusive recent interviews which offer an insight into both Castro the leader, struggling to face the political and economic realities of the post-Soviet global environment, and Castro the man, as he tours his childhood home, goes swimming, and visits with his friends. Fidel also includes interviews with people who know or have met Castro, including Nelson Mandela, Muhammed Ali, Harry Belafonte, Alice Walker, Ted Turner, and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Antonio Banderas plays the title role in this cable-TV reenactment of a little-known chapter in the life of Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa. The year is 1914: With Villa's war of rebellion against the Huerta forces going badly, he hits upon a brilliant method to finance his crusade. Actually, the idea is brought to him: American filmmakers D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) and Harry Aiken (Jim Broadbent), then busy at work on The Birth of a Nation, approach Villa with a request that he sell them the movie rights to his revolution. Acting as Griffith and Aiken's representative, junior executive Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) tags along with Villa as the rebel leader willingly "directs" the film of his campaign, even going so far as to delay mass executions until early morning so that the cameramen won't "lose the sun." Ultimately, Villa's dreams of cinematic glory are dashed when the American public, goaded on by certain special interest groups, turns against Pancho and his noble cause. By turns comic, tragic, gruesome, and ironic, And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself was first telecast by HBO on September 7, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One man's success brings out the evil instincts in his enemy in this drama from Mexico. Don Pancho Murguia is an honest man who has built a successful business making tequila, which is regarded as the best Mexico has to offer. But he has a bitter rival in Mateo San Juan, whose corruption matches Don Pancho's skills. Determined to overtake Don Pancho in the marketplace, Mateo and his men set out to steal the elusive formula to his tequila, and when this proves difficult, Mateo declares that human lives are not too high a price to get what he wants. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Known to his fans as "El Polivoz," Enrique Cuenca was one of Mexico's most beloved funnymen, best remembered for such hilarious characters as the threadbare Frenchman Monsieur, short-tempered opera singer Fasolasi, and Alpaca Echo, a man with a bad habit of saying things over and over again. Lo Mejor Del Show De Enrique el Polivoz Cuenca is a collection of classic sketches from his long-running television series, capturing this comic at his very best. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the 1960s the popularity of flamenco dance was exploding. A passionate and intense dance that is as intoxicating to view as it is difficult to learn, the art of flamenco is mastered only by those with true dedication and natural skill on the dance floor. In this release, footage from some of the best filmed flamenco performances of the 1960s offer a look back at just how this remarkable dance took the U.S. by storm. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Made for cable, Walkout is the true story of a little-known but profoundly significant moment in the history of the Latino community in East Los Angeles. In 1968, Lincoln High School honor student Paula Crisostomo (Alexa Vega), outraged at the shabby treatment afforded Chicano students in the L.A. school system -- including habitually lowered expectations, poor facilities, a total absence of bilingual courses or textbooks, unfairly administered penalties for slight infractions, demeaning corporal punishment, and out-of-hand refusal to write letters of recommendation to choice colleges -- challenges the authority of her elders for the first time in her life by organizing a mass student walkout at five barrio high schools. Mentored by dedicated young teacher Sal Castro (Michael Pena), Paula and her fellow student activists intend to make their protest a peaceful one, but the L.A. cops typically use brute force to quell the "radicals." Even when it seems that the school board will capitulate to the Chicano students' demands, the kids are betrayed (there's an undercover police officer in their midst) and the leaders of the walkout are threatened with lengthy prison sentences on trumped-up "conspiracy" charges. It will not spoil the ending of the film to reveal that the students are ultimately successful; as directed by actor Edward James Olmos (who also plays one of the school board members), the dramatic thrust of the story is the lasting effect that the protest has on its participants -- especially the idealistic Paula Crisostomo. Executive producer Moctesuma Esparza, who'd been one of the original walkout organizers back in 1968, spent a full two decades getting this story on film; Esparza is played by Bodie Olmos, son of the director, while Esparza's daughter Tonantzin Esparza is seen as Vickie Castro. Also, Paula Crisostomo's daughter Marisol Crisostomo-Romo is seen as Mita -- and in addition, several of the former student activists are interviewed during the closing credits, or appear as extras in the crowd scenes. Produced for HBO, Walkout originally aired on March 18, 2006. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Spanish-language documentary release Grandes Muralistas offers vivid and tributary biographical studies of two of the most legendary Spanish mural painters of all time: Diego Rivera (1886-1957) and José David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide