MexDocs: Recent Mexican Documentaries, Dec 10-16, 2020
MexDocs: Recent Mexican Documentaries
December 10 – 16, 2020
and Caribbean Studies at New York University.
Additional support provided by the CUNY Mexican Studies Institute
at Lehman College, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Languages and Literature at New York University.
Featuring a slate of four documentaries that have recently made their rounds of the international festival circuit, MexDocs: Recent Mexican Documentaries offers a nuanced perspective on contemporary Mexico by delving into the different social, political, and cultural issues currently at play in the country, with a particular emphasis on narratives of womanhood and indigenous resistance.
Special MexDocs Panel Discussion:
Friday, December 11, 5pm EST
Facebook Live
Join us on Friday, December 11 on Cinema Tropical’s Facebook Live for a special panel discussion with the featured filmmakers, moderated by Laura Torres RodrĂguez, Assistant Professor of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Literatures and Cultures. The guest filmmakers will be discussing their individual work, their relationship to their stories and their subjects, as well as the current challenges facing non-fiction directors in Mexico.
RETREAT / RETIRO
A film by Daniela Alatorre
(Mexico, 2019, 70 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Marina and Perla, grandmother and granddaughter, join thousands of other women on an annual pilgrimage to a Catholic mountain retreat. Practicing their faith alongside one another, the women gain a sense of community, navigate their independence, and learn to value themselves within a paternalistic society. Following three generations of women both during and after the pilgrimage, Retreat deftly explores the chapters of womanhood from coming of age to motherhood to old age, and the occasions that overlap in between. Daniela Alatorre’s captivating debut feature delivers a portrait of female strength by quietly delving into the unexpected places where it’s gathered.
MARICARMEN
A film by Sergio Morkin
(Mexico, 2019, 76 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
Maricarmen plays the cello, performs with a rock band, and holds a seat in a chamber music orchestra. She also teaches music, writes, and runs marathons. Maricarmen lives alone, and at 52, is completely blind. She copes with her condition by having a biting sense of humor and an unwavering sense of self-discipline; there’s nothing that she can’t do. Operating as both a moving portrait of womanhood and a stripped-back meditation on the very act of living, Maricarmen paints a picture of a woman determined to not be defined by her disability, all while navigating the demands of everyday life, love, and family relationships in contemporary Mexico.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BEES? / ¿QUÉ LES PASÓ A LAS ABEJAS?
A film by Adriana Otero and Robin Canul
(Mexico, 2019, 67 min. In Spanish and Mayan with English subtitles)
What Happened to the Bees? is a documentary that exposes the deadly effects of regularly used agrochemicals—currently legal in countries like Mexico and the United States—on millions of bees in the Mexican state of Campeche. Following community organizers Gustavo Huchin and Leydi Pech in their fight against government authorities and Monsanto, the film explores the ways in which the planting of monocultures threatens the health and environment of Mayan beekeeping communities in the southeast of the country. More than just protect the bees, they’re fighting to safeguard their land from massive deforestation, groundwater table pollution and climate change. What Happened to the Bees? is a powerful investigation of the overlapping socio-environmental conflicts currently taking place in indigenous Mexican territories.
WHEN I SHUT MY EYES / CUANDO CIERRO LOS OJOS
A film by Sergio Blanco and Michelle Ibaven
(Mexico, 2019, 63 min. In Mazatec, Mixtec, and Spanish with English subtitles)
Adela and Marcelino share an isolation that is common among many native speakers of indigenous languages in Mexico. Processed without an interpreter before the Mexican justice system, both are serving sentences for crimes they didn’t commit: Adela, unjustly incarcerated for nine years for the murder of her brother-in-law, and Marcelino, serving thirty years for a homicide he had no part in. In their respective languages of Mazatec and Mixtec, they finally tell the stories the judges never heard: violence at the hands of corrupt police officers, forced confessions, and the signing of untranslated documents. Movingly illustrated through meditative and symbolic visuals, their two voices meld to express a mutual disorientation, to tell stories of their lands and loved ones, and to demand equal representation in the fight against injustice and exclusions in the legal system.