Luis Buñuel made this adaptation of one of the world’s most famous shipwreck novels, Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, during his Mexican period. Despite the fact that the film veers from Buñuel’s “usual” style, for most it is considered the best film version of Defoe’s book, since the director left his personal touch on the story, and when that director is Buñuel, there’s little room for mediocrity.
Newlywed Oliverio receives disturbing news that his mother is on her deathbed. He travels to a remote part of Mexico to fetch a lawyer who can sort out her will.
Güeros was the most highly acclaimed Mexican film of 2014, winning the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale, the Horizontes Latino Award at the San Sebastián Film Festival and the Golden Ariel for Best Picture at the Mexican Academy Awards. At its screening in San Sebastián, the director and cast received a 5-minute standing ovation. This film is a mesmerizing, black & white masterpiece, full of an intoxicating, youthful energy and a wonderfully nostalgic soundtrack. Come join us for a truly memorable Opening Night!!
Juanicas is an intimate portrait of a Mexican immigrant family in Quebec affected by mental illness. Using material shot over almost 10 years, the filmmaker documents her complex relationship with her mother and brother, both suffering from bipolar disorder. She starts filming when Juan, her brother, returns to live in Canada after several years away in Mexico. At first the camera provides a distance that helps them reconnect with each other, but soon old patterns return.
In this film festival favourite, every day is magical in the tiny logging town of San Miguel de Cruces, Mexico, thanks to director Juan Antonio de la Riva, who captures the rhythms of small-town life through the stories of its inhabitants. From a young couple facing separation as the husband prepares to seek work in the United States to a pair of teens on the cusp of adulthood to the local movie theatre operator struggling to stay open after the introduction of satellite dishes, Pueblo de madera portrays a town—and a people—in transition.
Drawing on personal experiences, de la Riva follows an itinerant movie projectionist who travels along the mountain back-roads in a battered truck, showing classic movies to lumberjacks off the tailgate. Camping, sleeping on old film posters in cheap hotels, Francisco’s life is rootless. A younger vagabond becomes his helper, then a pretty young woman becomes their companion. Along with a backwoods carpenter, the two young people help Francisco attempt to realize an elusive dream—to settle in his hometown, build his own theatre and show his cherished movies. Michael Donnelly
Curated by Luna Marán, director of the Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante (Travelling Audiovisual Workshop) in Oaxaca.
Gonzalez is a lost soul in one of the world's biggest cities, Mexico City. Desperate to be someone in life---and to pay off his debts---he embarks on a journey into the increasingly magnetic world of Evangelical Christianity. Religion seems to offer a quick path to becoming rich and soon Gonzalez is willing to do anything in his power in order to make it happen.
