Straight Outta Mexico

Curated by Santiago Esteinou

*Ran for 5 days

INTIMIDADES DE SHAKESPEARE Y VICTOR HUGO

Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies

Dir. Yulene Olaizola (2009) 83 min.

The lodging house at the intersection of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo streets in Mexico City has been a shelter for all sorts of magnificent and singular individuals, under the management of its owner, my grandmother Rosa. When I was ten years old I met one of its guests. He used to sing for me and paint my portraits; his name was Jorge Riosse, a charming schizophrenic and virtuous individual who became my grandmother’s close friend. One night in 1993, his room set on fire and Jorge died. My grandmother started to investigate this fatal accident and she soon discovered different clues that connected it with a serial killer who had strangled at least 13 women in different hotels in the popular La Merced district. However, in spite of her doubts and suspicion, my grandmother still remembers Jorge as the talented young man who shared his art, his music and above all, his affection.

LOS LADRONES VIEJOS: LAS LEYENDAS DEL ARTEGIO

The Old Thieves

Dir. Everardo González, 2007, 97 min.

Ladrones Viejos is the story of a generation of thieves who achieved their greatest victories in the sixties; their distinctive code of ethics, the various categories of delinquents inhabiting the city’s streets, their alliances with high ranking police officials that allowed them to operate, the betrayals that followed, and the price they ended up paying.

In Spanish with English Subtitles

DeNADIE

NoONE

Dir. Tin Dirdamal, 2005, 82 min.

María’s story, a Central American immigrant who is forced to abandon her family searching for the American dream. On her way to the United States, she has to cross México, where she lives a nightmare. DeNADIE is a documentary about the courage and injustice that thousands of Central Americans live. These migrants are tortured, robbed, raped and even murdered by several groups in Mexico. Before we say goodbye to María, we promised to find her family in Honduras and give them a message.

AL OTRO LADO

To The Other Side

Dir. Natalia Almada (2005) 70 min. 

An aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico faces two choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. From Sinaloa, Mexico to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, illegal immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all.

Trailer/interview with director: http://www.pbs.org/pov/alotrolado/

EN EL HOYO

In The Pit

Dir. Juan Carlos Rulfo (2006) 84 min. 

A Mexican legend recounted that for every bridge built the devil would ask for one soul, so that the bridge never falls. This film tells the story of the workers who are participating in the construction of a second deck to Mexico’s City inner Periférico freeway. This second deck is about to transform the city, its landscape and the lives of its inhabitants. It is the story of those whose hands and sweat go into the making of this mammoth work of concrete, steel and asphalt. The workers’ daily lives, their hopes, their emotions and small moments that will culminate in the loss of a soul taken by the devil, a soul that will remain as a memory of the workers who build the second deck.  

In Spanish with English Subtitles