Esperanza, regarding purchasing movies in Spain this summer, please be aware that videos in Spain, just like the DVDs Antonio mentioned, don't work on American systems. Spain uses the PAL system, and the USA uses the NTSC system. There are multisystem VCRs that play more than one system, so if your school has one, you may be all right. If not, they cost around $500. To get a copy of a PAL tape made into an NTSC tape, it will cost about $30. (There's a thread in here somewhere with more information.)

Secretos del corazon (Secrets of the heart) is a great Spanish film I saw a couple of months ago. Its about a young boy and one summer when he learns about the secrets of his family, so I don't think there would be anything too gratuitous for high school students.

Diana, Thanks for the warning. I do have access to a machine that converts from one system to the other in my school.

Regarding "secretos del corazon". If I recall correctly, one of the things the kid sees and understands is the fact that humans tend to mate like the bees, the dogs,...you know what I mean.

I recomend "La Vaquilla" it's a really funny and close to reality film about the Spanish Civil war, no sex and no violence, maybe just some bad language.
I also recomend "Un lugar en el mundo", it's a really pretty argetinian film
You can find any information about any film in the page www.imdb.org
with comments in english.

What about, "Como agua por Chocolate" Water for Chocalate? I saw it in both Spanish and English and would be great for students I think.

"Como agua para chocolate" is fairly heavy on the sex front! I had to watch it for a college class but I don't know about a high school classroom....

Well we are coming to the end of the school year and I have shown some of the films mentioned, and I thought I would share the results.
In one class everyone loved Almodovar's Mujeres. We also saw Como agua para chocolate and it was a big hit also. Excerts from Como agua para chocolate are in our textbook, so they were very prepared with vocabulary and such; and the kids really enjoyed it. Especially the realismo mágico..it IS captivating.
In another class we recently saw Lengua de la mariposa/Butterfly. I thought that they would not really appreciate the political interpretation too much ( they are high school sophomores), yet they were very moved by the ending. We had some pretty good discussions about it and I am very happy to have shown it.
Lastly, in my freshman class we saw El norte. They enjoyed it too and it really opened their eyes to another culture. It is one of my favorites and I love to expose my students to it each year.
In the past I have shown Mi familia...with good results. The problem is all the English! I really want them to hear the Spanish...and to FEEL it.
I have recently joined the Instituto Cervantes Instituto Cervantes and they have an AMAZING library of books and videos. I am planning on checking out some of the other films you all mentioned in the past to see if they would be good for my classes. As a matter of fact, Cali, the Don Quixote series is in their library...so I will definitely check it out.
Well, there is my update. Thanks again for your suggestions and ideas. Esperanza

Wow Esperanza, that Instituto Cervantes looks great. Can you believe I've been in NYC since 1995 and have never been there? Now is a good time to start. (or when I get back from Spain)

Esperanza,

Glad to hear you had some hits on your movie presentation. I do have one suggestion: Be careful about exposing yourself to high school children in the future.

Enjoy finals week!