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A socio-political thriller, Sin Nombre is set not on the Mexican-American border, but rather on the perilous road to that border from the countries of Central America.
The fearsome gangs of the Mexican countryside become a gauntlet that migrants must run before even glimpsing their goal.
The stories of Sayra, a teenager living in Honduras and hungering for a brighter future, and teen gang members Smiley and Casper, for whom the Mara Salvatrucha gang is nearly their entire universe, become interlaced atop the freight train that takes them to the US border – a journey that will determine the future of their lives.
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| Al Jazeera's entertainment editor Amanda Palmer and director Cary Fukunaga |
Winner of the Cinematography and Directing Awards at this year's Sundance Film Festival and the New Director's Award at the Edinburgh Film Festival, Sin Nombre is one of the most powerful and assured debuts in recent memory.
Director Cary Fukunaga joins entertainment editor Amanda Palmer and the FPS audience for a Q&A session in which he describes his years of research spent in the Mexican train yards amongst the hopeful and desperate migrants.
Part two
Danny Glover
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| Danny Glover and Hugo Chavez |
Danny Glover got a late start in the acting game, but with key roles in big films like The Color Purple, independent gems like Charles Burnett's To Sleep With Anger, and the mega-hit Lethal Weapon series, in which he played Mel Gibson's weary, family-man sidekick, he has become Hollywood royalty.
He has also been a prominent, outspoken advocate for humanitarian and political causes, including work as an ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and public appearances with Bush-bashing Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president.
Glover recently served as executive producer of the documentary Soundtrack For A Revolution, which looks at the American civil rights movement through the music that served as both its backdrop and inspiration. He speaks to entertainment editor Amanda Palmer about the film, his career, and his personal passions.
Ousmane Sembene
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| Ousmane Sembene |
Senegalese author and filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, who died in 2007, was widely regarded as the "father of African cinema".
At this year's bi-annual FESPACO – Africa's biggest and best-known film festival – in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital, a statue of Sembene was unveiled and a street named after him.
At FESPACO, we investigate Sembene's sizeable legacy, and talk to up-and-coming African filmmakers and observers of the scene to try and gauge where African cinema might be headed in the post-Sembene era.
This episode of The Fabulous Picture Show can be seen from Thursday, August 13 2009 at the following times GMT: Thursday: 0600, 1630; Friday: 0130, 0830; Saturday: 1130, 2330; Sunday: 0630, 2030; Monday: 1430; Tuesday: 1930; Wednesday: 0300.
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