Modesta

For more information and to download this film, please visit https://www.loc.gov/item/mbrs00045468/ Puerto Rico's Division of Community Education produced approximately 65 short subjects between 1950 and 1975. Designed to inform --and influence -- the citizenry about government policy, the productions featured mostly amateur native performers and artists. Feminist at its heart, the film tells the story of a barrio woman (Antonia Hidalgo) who stands up to her abusive husband. Strongly affected by his earlier work as cinematographer on Robert Flaherty's "Louisiana Story," director Benjamin Doniger echoes his mentor's regard for pastoral poetry employing cinematographer Luis A. Maisonet to capture both the beauty of the countryside and the harshness of its lifestyle, bathing them in the soft light of early morning and dusk, as Doniger matter-of-factly depicts rural Puerto Ricans’ struggle against poverty. Named to the National Film Registry in 1998.