Rubén Blades | WatchedThis
Rubén Blades
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Rubén Blades Bellido de Luna (born July 16, 1948) is a Panamanian salsa singer, songwriter, lawyer, actor, Latin jazz musician, and politician, performing musically most often in the Afro-Cuban and Latin jazz genres. As songwriter, Blades brought the lyrical sophistication of Central American nueva canción and Cuban nueva trova as well as experimental tempos and political inspired Nuyorican salsa to his music, creating thinking persons' (salsa) dance music. Blades has composed dozens of musical hits, the most famous of which is "Pedro Navaja," a song about a neighborhood thug who appears to die during a robbery (his song "Sorpresas" continues the story), inspired by "Mack the Knife." He also composed and sings what many Panamanians consider their second national anthem. The song is titled "Patria" (Fatherland). He is an icon in Panama and is much admired throughout Latin America, and managed to attract 18% of the vote in his failed attempt to win the Panamanian presidency in 1994. In September 2004, he was appointed minister of tourism by Panamanian president Martín Torrijos for a five-year term. He holds a law degree from the University of Panama and a master's in international law from Harvard University. He is married to singer Luba Mason. Description above from the Wikipedia article Rubén Blades, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Predator 2
A police chief in the war-torn streets of Los Angeles discovers that an extraterrestrial creature is hunting down residents - and that he is the next target.
Color of Night
A color-blind psychiatrist is stalked by an unknown killer after taking over his murdered friend's therapy group and becomes embroiled in an intense affair with a mysterious woman who may be connected to the crime.
The Devil's Own
Frankie McGuire, one of the IRA's deadliest assassins, draws an American family into the crossfire of terrorism. But when he is sent to the U.S. to buy weapons, Frankie is housed with the family of Tom O'Meara, a New York cop who knows nothing about Frankie's real identity. Their surprising friendship, and Tom's growing suspicions, forces Frankie to choose between the promise of peace or a lifetime of murder.
Chinese Box
The story of Hong Kong, from New Year's Day to June 30th, 1997, when the British left their colony and turned it over to the People's Republic of China.
Disorganized Crime
Lou Diamond Phillips and Fred Gwynne team up with a gang of professional criminals who have everything it takes to rob a bank. The only things they do have going for them are a cop and his partner, who are dumber than they are! By the time the gang hits the bank vault, it's a safe bet there's going to be organized insanity and disorganized crime!
Critical Condition
Eddie is a con artist. When he's framed and comes before a judge, he hopes to get off the hook by claiming insanity—but instead ends up in a hospital for a mental assessment. That night, a storm causes a power failure and, in the ensuing chaos, Eddie is mistaken for a doctor and suddenly finds himself in charge of the hospital.
Cradle Will Rock
A true story of politics and art in the 1930s USA, centered around a leftist musical drama and attempts to stop its production.
The Two Jakes
Real estate developer Jake Berman hires private investigator and war veteran Jake Gittes for some run-of-the-mill matrimonial work. After Berman shoots his wife's lover, who happens to be his business partner, Gittes is drawn into a web of conspiracy and deceit involving the oil reserves beneath Los Angeles. While investigating, Gittes hears a voice from his past that causes him to revisit a traumatic case in Chinatown.
Secuestro Express
Young couple Carla and Martin are abducted by three men and spend a terrifying night in Caracas as they wait for Carla's father to hand over the ransom
The Milagro Beanfield War
The accidental breakdown of an irrigation valve launches a hot confrontation between the mainly Latino farmers in a tiny New Mexico town and the real estate developers and politicians determined to acquire their land for a golf resort.
Production
Ligia Elena
An upper middle class white young girl leaves her suburban family in shock when she moves in with her lover, an Afro-Latino trumpeter.
By the Green Trail
In the city of gold as they call it, Palenque, Jean, Rose and Machete find themselves immersed in a marginal world trying to survive with the opportunities that the city offers them, with the anguish of being deported, with the temptation of the easily earned money. They look for another El Dorado or return, broken by the environment, from where they came. Some flee, others die in this sordid environment. They are human beings, mostly Colombians, who live in Venezuelan society, whose culture they enrich, perverting or adopting.
Empire
Big time drug dealer Victor Rosa is looking to get out of the game and sees his chance with a big deal with a new friend who happens to be a Wall St. stockbroker. Thinking this will be his chance to go out on top, Victor soon finds out that he's been double crossed and his last option is to get revenge.
Q & A
A young district attorney seeking to prove a case against a corrupt police detective encounters a former lover and her new protector, a crime boss who refuses to help him.
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair
Coverup: Behind the Iran Contra Affair is the third feature-length documentary produced by the Empowerment Project. The shadow government of assassins, arms dealers, drug smugglers, former CIA operatives and top US military personnel who were running foreign policy unaccountable to the public, revealing the Reagan/Bush administration's plan to use FEMA to institute martial law and ultimately suspend the Constitution. Strikingly relevant to current events.
When the Mountains Tremble
A documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with first hand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.
Peter Knife
The story of the coolest, street-smart hustler ever to walk the streets of Mexico City, based on the international hit song. The police are after him, his rivals are after him, and all the while the most beautiful women of Mexico are in the cup of his hand.
Operation Just Cause
The stories of a Panamanian officer who feels betrayed by his superiors, of a young man from the neighborhood trying to prevent his friends from going out to fight, of a fisherman going through a thousand adventures trying to bury his compadre, of an imprisoned American businessman for conspiring as a CIA agent against the dictatorship and an alcoholic prostitute who cannot escape her past ... all in the middle of the Christmas preparations, just as the US invasion of Panama begins.
Oliver & Company
Putting its own 'twist' on the story of Oliver Twist, the orange runt of a litter of kittens must fight for survival on the rough streets on New York City, finding unlikely friends in the dogs owned by a down-on-his luck man named Fagin. Soon, Oliver and his new band of comrades must fight for survival when Fagin is unable to pay his debts.
Pedro Navaja
The short film recreates the final scene of the 1984 film of the same name. The story centers on the encounter between Pedro Navaja and his wife Rosa, whose conflict leads to a violent confrontation that ends with the death of both characters.
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