Dawn to Despair 
Writer: Jeffrey L. Gould
Director: Ernesto Jara Vargas
Thursday, April 13 | 5:30 p.m.
Wolfensohn Hall 

This fictionalized history of a working class family in Alajuela, Costa Rica, offers of a portrait of the labor movement and Communist Party during the early 1930s, while focusing on the intimate dynamics of the family. In the world of “comrades,” family problems were common. To be poor and a communist in the midst of misery and official harassment had high personal costs. Party discipline further provoked contradictions between political convictions and personal codes of morality.

Jeffrey L. Gould is Distinguished Visiting Professor in the School of Historical Studies, IAS. His most recent books are Solidarity Under Siege: The Salvadoran Labor Movement, 1970-1990 [Cambridge: 2019] and Entre el Bosque y los Arboles [Guadalajara: 2021]. His most recent films are Port Triumph [2019] and the Word in the Woods [2011]. 

Ernesto Jara is a Costa Rican documentarían and filmmaker. He is the founder and director of Producciones Pecera. His most recent films are Queremos Tanto a Bruno and Codo del Diablo. He is completing Altamar.

Click here to view the trailer.

This pilot episode runs 50 minutes.

A wine and cheese reception will follow.