search

Woodpeckers (Carpinteros)

Lead actor Jean Jean in person!

Woodpeckers (Carpinteros)

José María Cabral’s arresting drama “Woodpeckers (Carpinteros)” could be called love in a pressure cooker, but that would be understating its vivid textures and palpable vitality. The film was shot on location in the Dominican Republic’s Najayo and La Victoria prisons, where the stifling claustrophobia of those settings infuses every frame.

Julián (the Haitian-Dominican actor and filmmaker Jean Jean), who has been convicted of theft, is shorn of his resplendent dreadlocks when he is sent to Najayo, where he quickly learns the sign language — “woodpecking” — that the inmates employ to communicate and flirt from afar with the female inmates at an adjacent penitentiary. (An elevated fenced enclosure looks out at their athletic area.)

Julián also serves as a proxy for Manaury (Ramón Emilio Candelario), a hotheaded drug dealer, who has been barred from communicating directly with his incarcerated “girlfriend,” Yanelly (Judith Rodríguez). When Julián himself catches Yanelly’s eye, and she his, tensions escalate between Julián and Manaury, and the men are relocated to the even more oppressive La Victoria. There, a newly freed Yanelly visits as passions and a prison riot erupt.

The lean handsomeness and quiet authority of Mr. Jean is a perfect complement to Ms. Rodríguez’s passionate Yanelly, while the locations — and the presence of actual inmates — underscore the harsh boundaries the lovers struggle against. Their efforts to transcend their station leads to a stark climax that is a silent, anguished and haunting cri de coeur.

— Andy Webster, The New York Times

Woodpeckers (Carpinteros)

Mon September 25, 2017, 7:30 PM, Muenzinger Auditorium

Dominican Republic, in Spanish with English subtitles, Color, 106 min, 2.35 : 1 • official site

recommend

Tickets

10 films for $60 with punch card
$9 general admission. $7 w/UCB student ID, $7 for senior citizens
$1 discount to anyone with a bike helmet
Free on your birthday! CU Cinema Studies students get in free.

Parking

Pay lot 360 (now only $1/hour!), across from the buffalo statue and next to the Duane Physics tower, is closest to Muenzinger. Free parking can be found after 5pm at the meters along Colorado Ave east of Folsom stadium and along University Ave west of Macky.

RTD Bus

Park elsewhere and catch the HOP to campus

International Film Series

(Originally called The University Film Commission)
Established 1941 by James Sandoe.

First Person Cinema

(Originally called The Experimental Cinema Group)
Established 1955 by Carla Selby, Gladney Oakley, Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage.

C.U. Film Program

(AKA The Rocky Mountain Film Center)
First offered degrees in filmmaking and critical studies in 1989 under the guidance of Virgil Grillo.

Celebrating Stan

Created by Suranjan Ganguly in 2003.

C.U. Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Established 2017 by Chair Ernesto Acevedo-Muñoz.

Thank you, sponsors!
Boulder International Film Festival
Department of Cinema Studies & Moving Image Arts

Looking for a gift for a friend?
Buy a Frequent Patron Punch Card for $60 at any IFS show. With the punch card you can see ten films (a value of $90).

We Want Your Feedback

Cox & Kjølseth
: Filmmaker Alex Cox & Pablo Kjølseth discuss film topics from their own unique perspectives.

Z-briefs
: Pablo and Ana share Zoom-based briefs on what's currently playing at IFS

Search IFS schedules

Index of visiting artists

Mon Apr 1, 2024

Hot Shots! Part Deux

At Muenzinger Auditorium

Sat Apr 20, 2024

Super Mario Bros.

At Muenzinger Auditorium

more on 35mm...