This is a FREE community screening of a movie as part of the Redwood City International Latino Film Festival!For Spaniards — and for the world — nothing has expressed their country's traditionally rigid gender roles more powerfully than the image of the male matador. So sacred was the bullfighter's masculinity to Spanish identity that a 1908 law barred women from the sport. Ella es el matador reveals the surprising history of the women who made such a law necessary and offers fascinating profiles of two female matadors currently in the arena: the acclaimed Mari Paz Vega and neophyte Eva Florencia. From Italy.
Ella es el matador captures Vega in some stunning moments that are both poetic and frightening. You may not become a fan of bullfighting, but after viewing this film , you will not be able to ignore its noble, if troubling, beauty. These courageous women are gender pioneers. But what emerges as their truest motivation is their sheer passion — for bullfighting and for the pursuit of a dream.
In Spanish with English subtitles.
2008 Tribeca Film Festival “ Documentary Creative Promise Award.”