Películas

Are there movie theaters in Costa Rica?  

Great question, Ali!  Movie theaters aren’t too different from movie theaters in the U.S.  They’re big, they have cheesy carpeting, and they sell a lot of popcorn.  Those types of theaters are found mostly around San José in the center of the country.   Away from San José big modern theaters are much harder to come by.  In Limón we don’t have a regular theater.  There’s one rickety old building, not very big, that has changing posters every once in a while, but I’ve never seen it open.  Apparently you can knock on the door and the guy will let you in and show a film.  I’d like to try it sometime. 

A lot of people buy illegally-made DVDs on the street.  It’s fun to watch the vendors in San José on the paseo (which is like a fancy street that no cars are allowed on).  The people who sell movies don’t have a license to sell, so what they do is place all their movies (dozens, sometimes hundreds) on top of a blanket and shout, “Movies for sale!  Action!  Romance!  Cartoons!  Moooooovieeeees for saaaaaaaale!!”  As soon as they see a police officer walking down the street toward them, they quickly grab the four corners of the blanket as if it were a bag for the movies and start walking the other direction.  Either that or they just whistle and talk with their buddy, pretending it was any old thing to be standing under the burning sun with a blanket in their hand.  When the cop passes, they unfold the blanket and start laying out their hundreds of movies again.  Sometimes another police officer will be turning the corner before they even finish putting everything back in order.  It’s goofy, but that’s how some people make a living. 

Paseo de Colon - photo courtesy of flickr user Luis Alonso Murillo

In Guinea it was very different.  Most people didn't even own a TV, let alone a DVD player.  In the town where I lived for training there was one movie theater that would be open on Fridays and Saturdays.  It was an event to go to the movies.  The "theater" was one big room, about the size of an old church.  It had a bunch of rickety wooden benches that were packed with people.  The lack of a backrest and stale, stuffy air did not make for the movie experience you and I are used to.  I went one time with my host brothers Alex and John.  It turned into a 'double-feature' night when 3/4 of the way through the first movie, the DVD stopped working, and they had to put on another one on to prevent the audience from getting angry.  Three-and-a-half hours--and two cheesy Bollywood movies--later we were on our way home with achy eyes and backs. 


One of my favorite moments from my four months in Africa happened on the first day that I arrived in my training community.  Three of my host siblings and I were sitting under the stars outside.  They took turns asking me questions about my life in the United States.  My thirteen-year-old sister Jaqueline (pron. jhach-eh-LEEN) began an exciting story about the one time--the only time--in her life that she got to see a movie.  The movie was Titanic.  She loved it.  "Is Titanic the oldest movie ever made?" she asked innocently. 

Jaqueline outside my bedroom window