Directed by Ismael Vásquez Bernabé • Documentary • 2024 • 77 minutes
In San Pedro Amuzgos, Oaxaca, Mexico—known as "the town of the spinners"—director Ismael Vásquez Bernabé returns to the community that shaped him. As a child, Vásquez Bernabé would lie under his mother’s loom and ponder life beyond his own existence in his small town. Now, as an adult, he follows this curiosity by focusing three key figures of the community. Donato, a recently deceased legendary violinist; his son Lorenzo, who is attempting to uphold his father’s legacy; and his own mother, Zoila, the only one of her sisters who still practices the art of weaving. Through these intertwined tales of music, dance, and tradition, the film explores the delicate threads that connect generations and the vital role of preserving cultural practices essential to the survival of an indigenous community. "It’s up to us who remain to rescue the cloth on the loom."
Up Next in Mexico
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Intimidad
Directed by Ashley Sabin and David Redmon • Documentary • 2008 • 71 minutes
Shot over five years, Intimidad is an in-depth portrait of Cecy and Camilo Ramirez, a young couple struggling to make ends meet in Reynosa, Mexico. They have recently left their 2-year-old daughter, Loida, with Cecy’s mo...
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History of a Movement
Directed by Eduardo Velasco Vásquez • Documentary • 2023 • 97 minutes
A group of friends met during #YoSoy132, a Mexican student-led movement that emerged in 2012 to protest media bias and electoral manipulation during Enrique Peña Nieto's presidential campaign. This movement marked a significan...
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Malintzin 17
Directed by Eugenio Polgovsky and Mara Polgovsky • Documentary • 2022 • 64 minutes
Filmed from the unusual vantage-point of a second-floor apartment window, MALINTZIN 17 portrays two parallel expressions of parental care.
For seven days and nights filmmaker Eugenio Polgovsky and his five-year-...
