Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family, made in 1984-85 at the height of the Contra war, brings us inside Sandinista Nicaragua five years after the revolution that overthrew the dictator Anastasio Somoza. It centers on five siblings of the privileged, well-connected Barrios family, all deeply committed to the revolution and working for it in various capacities, often at considerable risk to themselves. 

The second DVD, The Barrios Family 25 Years Later, including a group of 20 short films made in 2009-10, long after the historical opportunity for large-scale social transformation in Nicaragua had passed. This collection of works carry forward the story of the Barrios family and their country, tracing their multi-generational struggle to find ways to live and work according to the ideals that inspired their youth. 

This chronicle, unusual for its depth and completeness, is a case study in the opportunities and frustrations history offers to the individuals who live through it. It will be of special interest to students of Latin America, politics, history, sociology and biography. 

Disc 1 - Living at Risk: The Story of a Nicaraguan Family (59 min, 1985, 4:3 fullscreen) 

The film centers on five brothers and sisters who commit themselves to remaining and working with the revolutionary government in various professional capacities: medicine, community organizing, agricultural reform. This valuable documentary provides a dimension lacking in other films about Nicaragua: a sense of the fabric of everyday life, of the ways in which perpetual danger and tension are incorporated into the ongoing vital routines of doing one's job, raising one's family, going to market, finding entertainment, treating the sick, feeding the hungry. Level-headed and deeply felt, Living At Risk conveys above all an impression of quiet, believable heroism, most vividly in a dramatic sequence of a doctor delivering a vaccine to a remote village where his predecessor was recently executed by the counter-revolutionaries. 

Disc 2 - The Barrios Family 25 Years Later (131 min, 2011, 16:9 anamorphic) 

Made in 2009-2010, long after the historical opportunity for large-scale social transformation in Nicaragua had passed. This set of 20 short films — portraits, interviews, short documentaries — carries forward the story of the Barrios family, tracing their multi-generational struggle to find ways to live and work according to the ideals that once inspired them to put their lives at risk.