Absences
Tatiana Huezo
Ever since her husband and son were dragged out of the car and kidnapped by strangers four years ago, Lulu has drifted through her life in Mexico like a ghost.
D
Film Archive
Absences
Documentary Film
El Salvador,
Mexico
2015
26 minutes
subtitles:
English
Ever since her husband and son were dragged out of the car and kidnapped by strangers four years ago, Lulu has drifted through her life in Mexico like a ghost. Though there is no trace of them she can’t stop searching. When is the right time to bury one’s hopes? Tatiana Huezo visually translates Lulu’s story into a reality that has cracked and shows the invisible: the feeling of absence – but also a path back to life.
Lars Meyer
Lars Meyer
Atl Tlachinolli
Alexander Hick
Mexico City, a juggernaut of millions of inhabitants, fighting for survival. Its counterpoint is the mythical Axolotl, which does not undergo any metamorphosis but is losing its biotope. A bold portrait of a city.
Atl Tlachinolli
Documentary Film
Germany,
Mexico
2015
76 minutes
subtitles:
German
You don’t have to be a zoologist to understand Alexander Hick’s fascination with an animal singularly adapted to the formation of myths. The axolotl, a caudate, refuses to metamorphose. It will not go ashore but prefers to remain in the water as a larva and still manages to breed and regrow limbs. Even its heart and brain regenerate! The only problem is that its habitat has vanished. An 8-million metropolis is now rising where there used to be water: Mexico City. Alexander Hick asks how humans treat the conquered paradise through insistent images full of cultural historical, religious and mythological references. In fragmented parallel episodes he sketches the inhabitants of this megacity and their struggle for survival. Violence and corruption have hollowed out everything: the family, the institutions, the state. The film does not give us any faith in their self-“regeneration”. On the contrary.
So the axolotl, worshipped by the Aztecs, is the last witness of an oppressed and abused landscape and an age when humans were still capable of building advanced civilisations. An intelligent – in the noblest sense of the word – essay film, and the bold portrait of a city.
Cornelia Klauß
So the axolotl, worshipped by the Aztecs, is the last witness of an oppressed and abused landscape and an age when humans were still capable of building advanced civilisations. An intelligent – in the noblest sense of the word – essay film, and the bold portrait of a city.
Cornelia Klauß
Atmahaú Pakmát
Cameron Quevedo
A poetic and political film about border demarcations and their consequences, the struggle for survival of adobe brick makers in the Mexican-US border region and the magic of a river.
Atmahaú Pakmát
Documentary Film
Mexico,
USA
2017
24 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Cameron Quevedo
Jesús Gerdel
Jim Hickcox
Cameron Quevedo
Will Harrell
Everybody’s talking about the planned wall between the US and Mexico, but what’s often overlooked is that this borderline is in itself a construct. In the mid-19th century, Mexico had to accept a massive loss of territory to its powerful northern neighbour. The demarcation line has followed the Rio Grande ever since. A poetic and political film about border demarcations and their consequences, the struggle for survival of adobe brick makers in the Mexican-US border region and the magic of a river.
Annina Wettstein
Annina Wettstein
Dead When I Got Here
Mark Aitken
An asylum for the mentally ill in Juárez, Mexico, where the ex-junkie Josué takes care of the castaways. An amazing ballad of difference and loss, violence and caring.
Dead When I Got Here
Documentary Film
Mexico,
UK
2015
72 minutes
subtitles:
English
At first sight Josué looks like an ageing heavyweight boxer who found his way back to life – and his vocation – after a knockout. We are at “Visión en Acción”, a home for the mentally disturbed on the outskirts of Juárez, Mexico. A violent city in which Josué wasted his life as a heroin junkie. Six years ago they dumped him here, half-dead. At “Visión en Acción” there are no doctors or nurses, there’s not enough money, only a kind of self-administration run by the inmates. They opened their arms to Josué and healed him. He has lived here ever since and managed the home with the dedication of a man who crossed a border and was brought back to serve his fellow humans in the spirit of charity. “Visión en Acción” is an amazing place, whose daily routines Mark Aitken shows us in very factual images. The situations need no spectacular highlights, they speak for themselves: of being mentally different, of loss, caring and the violence of the city. At the same time this point of view forces us again and again to recognise our own limits in the face of abnormalities. That’s one of the things Josué teaches us, who, in some shots, doesn’t look like a boxer at all but rather like a slumped, thoughtful Buddha.
Matthias Heeder
Matthias Heeder
Drought
Everardo González
A cattle farm in the dry Northeast of Mexico: man and animal fighting for survival against the drought, until the rain falls... An archaic cycle in impressive images.
“Cuates de Australia” doesn’t sound very Mexican, though it’s the name of a cattle farm in the dry Northeast of the country. A place that’s isolated from the world, without electricity, paved roads or fresh drinking water. The present inhabitants don’t know where the name came from. Life at “Cuates de Australia” is hard and the drought comes earlier every year, threatening to destroy the farmers’ livelihood. They endure until the springs dry up, the first animals die of thirst and the coyotes sneak closer and closer to the herd. Only then do the people and animals leave the village. A long caravan sets out in search of pasture and water, a place where they can wait for the rain while the daily chores must continue even now. Everardo González takes a calm look at the work of these men, women, old people and children and finds impressive images for man’s struggle for survival. When at last the first rain drops fall, the atmosphere suddenly changes: new colours arise, birdsong drives away the silence and a mood of departure spreads among the people. The old cycle of life resumes and hope returns to “Cuates de Australia” and its people. Sustained by a quiet rhythm, this film is a monument to an archaic lifestyle whose end is foreseeable.
– Paulo de Carvalho
– Paulo de Carvalho
Eskimal
Animated Film
Mexico
2011
8 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
An Eskimo and his friend the seal are desperately trying to save their home. Will they succeed?
Isolated
Marcela Lizcano
Santa Cruz del Islote in the Caribbean, more than 1,000 people living on roughly two and a half acres, the most densely populated island in the world. Living (and surviving) in a paradise that’s running out of fish …
Isolated
Documentary Film
Colombia,
Ecuador,
Mexico
2015
73 minutes
subtitles:
English
The tiny island of Santa Cruz is part of the San Bernardo archipelago off the Colombian Caribbean coast, situated within sight of its big sister Múcura. It’s not really an island, more of a coral reef that fishermen used for storage in the past. Then they brought their families here from the mosquito plagued islands, built huts, and today Santa Cruz is a city: 1,200 square metres, 97 houses, 500 inhabitants. Crowded with people and goods this unlikely place serves as a metaphor for our planet for the Colombian director Marcela Lizcano. El Cabo, an old fisherman and lobster diver, acts as a guide who knows how to describe the changes: fish is running low, the lobsters are disappearing and the sea has already swallowed six of the original 16 islands around Santa Cruz. His reflections lead to a residents’ meeting which demonstrates on a small scale how obstinacy, corruption and greed destroy our world. And then there are the children who roam everywhere and for whom the sea is a playground. Their future is not in Santa Cruz. They are drawn to the mainland, where the fun is. They will miss the sea when they wake up there in the mornings. With “Isolated” the director has created the very affectionate portrait of a community whose crisis mirrors all our problems. The only thing is – where can we go?
Matthias Heeder
Matthias Heeder
It’s Going to Be Beautiful
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
The dream of the end of immigration from Mexico in eight architectural prototypes. Beige, blue, concrete, steel, ridiculous against the backdrop of an unlimited landscape.
It’s Going to Be Beautiful
Documentary Film
Mexico,
USA
2018
9 minutes
subtitles:
English
Credits
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
John Henry Theisen
Luis Gutiérrez Arias, John Henry Theisen
Luis Gutiérrez Arias
Trump dreams of a barrier against immigration from Mexico become architecture. And we join in the dream. But do we dream in beige or blue? Do we dream with horizontal or vertical stripes, in reinforced concrete or disarming steel? Eight design prototypes are competing here, made ridiculous by the unlimited nature of the landscape and grounded by test climbers that pull themselves up these monoliths. A brilliantly filmed and conceived documentary joke – without the relief of laughter.
Sylvia Görke
Sylvia Görke
Magic Words (to Break a Spell)
Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez
A personal and emotional look at the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua and what became of it. Observations, flashbacks, reflections.
Magic Words (to Break a Spell)
Documentary Film
Guatemala,
Mexico,
Nicaragua
2012
82 minutes
subtitles:
English
On 19 June 1979, the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua triumphed over the Somoza regime. This moment of upheaval in Nicaraguan society made an deep impression on eight-year-old Mercedes Moncada – even though she was still a child, it shaped her political consciousness. Three decades later the filmmaker takes a very personal and emotional look at the revolution by going in search of what’s left of Sandino’s promise in Managua. The growing disappointment at the path chosen by the Sandinistas is gradually revealed in observations, flashbacks and reflections. What started out with the aim of creating a “new man” ended in a system of political wangling and personal power and class interests. The revolutionary movement is slowly turning into a new authoritarian regime. Mercedes Moncada Rodriguez’s political and courageous film does not seek the moral high ground but presents a critical self-examination whose implications go far beyond the political developments in Nicaragua.
Paulo de Carvalho
Paulo de Carvalho
Mutatio
Animated Film
Mexico
2011
8 minutes
subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
A strange humanoid wakes up abandoned on a great rock in the middle of the ocean. Without shelter or food, he must confront the very purpose of his life and the great mystery that sustains his species.
Plaza de la Soledad
Maya Goded
The prostitutes of La Merced in Mexico City: between 50 and 80, often abused and beaten, courageous, strong and completely devoid of illusions. Highly intimate confessions brimming with burlesque humour.
Plaza de la Soledad
First of all, “Plaza de la Soledad” opens with an amazing, made-for-cinema scene that works in a documentary only if filmmaking is considered a collaboration between the people in front of and behind the camera. In this case it’s a project realised by photographer and filmmaker Maya Goded and the prostitutes of La Merced in Mexico City, whose trust Goded won over years of work on a series of photos about the neighbourhood.
These women, who have sold themselves to men ever since they were young and live off them even today, are between 50 and 80 years old. That means a lot of bottled-up stuff, and cinema is their medium of choice to give vent to their stories. They are brave and strong, women who were abused or raped as young girls, had to raise their kids without husbands and describe their biographies with no illusions – no self pity, focused only on survival. At the same time there’s an energy vibrating in this film, whose narrative scope ranges from burlesque everyday humour via sexual practices with customers to the most intimate confessions that reveal glimpses of their longing for a little security and love. There’s no doubt that the renowned Magnum photographer Maya Goded is also one of the great voices of contemporary Mexican cinema.
Matthias Heeder
These women, who have sold themselves to men ever since they were young and live off them even today, are between 50 and 80 years old. That means a lot of bottled-up stuff, and cinema is their medium of choice to give vent to their stories. They are brave and strong, women who were abused or raped as young girls, had to raise their kids without husbands and describe their biographies with no illusions – no self pity, focused only on survival. At the same time there’s an energy vibrating in this film, whose narrative scope ranges from burlesque everyday humour via sexual practices with customers to the most intimate confessions that reveal glimpses of their longing for a little security and love. There’s no doubt that the renowned Magnum photographer Maya Goded is also one of the great voices of contemporary Mexican cinema.
Matthias Heeder
Potentiae
Javier Toscano
Javier Toscana untiringly observes everyday coping techniques of handicapped people in Mexico City – until his eyes are suddenly at risk.
Potentiae
A literal change of format. A car door is pushed open and the image follows. The narrow frame widens, the camera starts to fly, floating slowly high above the roofs of Mexico City. Then it starts to descend, sinks down into a narrow alley, finds its protagonist and rises again. It’s the shot that changes everything, that translates everything seen so far into a new order of seeing, a new form of perception.
So the question is: what exactly is director Javier Toscano documenting in his film “Potentiae”? Is it the routines of moving without legs – on steps, in the water, on the cinder track? The technique of brushing one’s teeth without arms? The skilled handling of the white stick? For a long time we watch a closely observing film about the various daily practices and techniques of handicapped people: documents of different concepts of self-determined life on the outskirts of a megacity. But is that all? How does this car door that opened the image affect our own vision? Is it shifted or freed from limitations? Is our perception expanded or even exploded? Can we still trust our eyes?
Lukas Stern
So the question is: what exactly is director Javier Toscano documenting in his film “Potentiae”? Is it the routines of moving without legs – on steps, in the water, on the cinder track? The technique of brushing one’s teeth without arms? The skilled handling of the white stick? For a long time we watch a closely observing film about the various daily practices and techniques of handicapped people: documents of different concepts of self-determined life on the outskirts of a megacity. But is that all? How does this car door that opened the image affect our own vision? Is it shifted or freed from limitations? Is our perception expanded or even exploded? Can we still trust our eyes?
Lukas Stern
It was autumn when the filmmaker arrived in Germany. Leaving his homeland Mexico he hoped to distance himself a bit from drug traffickers and the war on drugs. But he couldn’t escape.A short animated documentary about the drug-related violence in Mexico.
Removed
Naomi Uman
A film of unfulfilled dreams. Naomi Uman removed the objects of desire from a 1970s porn movie. Using nail polish remover and bleach, she made the women’s bodies invisible, frame by frame. What’s left is a phantom.
Credits
A film of unfulfilled dreams. Naomi Uman removed the objects of desire from a 1970s porn movie. Using nail polish remover and bleach, she made the women’s bodies invisible, frame by frame. What’s left is a phantom. The upstanding Romeos grasp nothing but emptiness and are left alone with their manhood.
Ines Seifert
Ines Seifert
The Convict Patient
Alejandro Solar Luna
After an assassination attempt on the life of the Mexican president a man is locked up as a psychiatric case for the next 23 years. A record of the extinction of a human being.
The Convict Patient
One of those stories that it would be a reckless understatement to call incredible: during a protest rally in Mexico City on 2 October, 1968, almost 300 people are killed as President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz deploys the armed forces and special units of the presidential guard to re-establish order in the country. Carlos Castañeda de la Fuente witnesses the events as a bystander. But that day was to determine the rest of his life: in a helpless act of outrage one and a half years later, the professed Christian attempts to assassinate Ordaz, but is arrested carrying a weapon before it happens and picked out to be groomed by the secret police as the fanatic mastermind of an attempted coup. When this fails, mainly because of the accused man’s naiveté, he is declared insane and locked away. He is believed to have disappeared. For years he is subjected to massive physical and mental abuse, later he is more or less forgotten. It is not before 1993, after 23 years as a psychiatric patient, that he is helplessly shoved off into “freedom” to eke out a miserable existence as a deranged homeless man in Mexico City. Director Alejandro Solar Luna spent a long time reconstructing the depths of this case: the extinction of a human being over four decades.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
The Mermaid Kingdom
Luis Rincón
Mysterious incidents occur in a Nicaraguan fishing village: divers re-emerge paralysed from the waters. A strong belief in mermaids correlates with the tragedies.
The Mermaid Kingdom
The boundary between the land and the sea is magic. When we see a few cows walking along the coast right at the start, it’s a picture of unity. Just like the bodies of mermaids who are said to look like fish from the belly down. There are many legends around these creatures. For example that people one of them falls in love with begin to stink of fish. Only special herbs can remove the smell, which makes locating the person impossible. Mermaids can cause pregnancies, too. And have huge banquets at the bottom of the sea. But the inhabitants of a Nicaraguan fishing village seem to have lost the local aquatic creatures’ favour: recently, incidents were observed where men returned paralysed from dives. Luis Rincón shows life on this boundary, the work above and below the water line. And he focuses on one paralysed man who almost never appears without his sunglasses. Once Rincón films him sitting at the window, so that the light playing on his skin looks like fish scales.
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for Healthy Workplaces Film Award
Carolin Weidner
Nominated for Healthy Workplaces Film Award