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Six documentaries and a Film about Mexico
City
Six Documentaries and a Film about Mexico City, the most recent
project of “el despacho”, is an effort to draw closer
to and share the lives of six individuals and their friends, their
relatives, their challenges, disappointments and desires. The aim
is to focus on the “ordinary” individual within a tempestuous
urban setting.
The stories that don’t make it to the big screen, or even the
small screen; the stories that we live side-by-side with; that we,
ourselves, live. Happenings that our attention finds easier to disregard,
in an apparent wish to disassociate ourselves from our immediate
reality. Chronicles and chroniclers within the video-documentaries
invite us to dwell for a moment within the quotidian, to engage
in our most proximate surroundings. “Six Documentaries and
a Film about Mexico City” proposes a reconsideration of the
everyday, the commonplace, as not an (un)avoidable circumstance,
but rather as a dynamic axis.
The seven videos (six documentaries and one film) were produced
during the course of fifteen months, by a group comprised of nine
visual artists, writers and filmmakers from Mexico and abroad. Every
two months, a team of two to three people came together in this
city, with the purpose of producing one of the documentaries. For
a period of three weeks, the group stuck around and filmed one inhabitant
of Mexico City, as well as his/her circle of friends, relatives
and colleagues. Consequently, a second period of three weeks was
devoted to the task of edition and post-production.
Two thousand copies of the documentaries were distributed hand-to-hand,
at no cost, among those who appeared in the documentaries. These
individuals, in turn, distributed the tapes among their own circle
of friends, acquaintances and neighbors. In 2003, the project will
be presented in the Museum of Mexico City, to the public at large,
henceforth initiating a series of projections and talks within different
spaces and forums throughout the city like high-schools and public
libraries. The documentaries will also be broadcast on television.
Tita 48min
made by: Bibo, Jeannine Diego, Diego Gutiérrez
The injustice and stigma surrounding domestic labor conditions in
Mexico City are such that it becomes difficult to avoid adopting
a paternalistic position which risks being no less self-indulgent
than that of those who advocate in favor of an oppressive class
system. Tita (Martha Toledo) prompts us to confront our own assumptions,
misconceptions and positioning around the issue. She shows us how
to look beyond the implications of the terms “la sirvienta”
(the servant), “la criada” (the help), “la muchacha”
(the hired girl). With contagious exuberance, she invites us to
shift our gaze and bear witness to the implications of being Tita,
a twenty-year-old woman recently migrated to the city from Álvaro
Obregón, a fishing village in Oaxaca. A woman whose fierce
independence and optimism are the means by which she will make true
her dreams and aspirations.
Los Super Amigos 44min
made by: Linda Bannink, Aldo Guerra, Diego Gutiérrez
Work: For some, simply a routine, an occupation. For others, the
hope for a better life, perhaps a means of rehabilitation. For yet
others, an enslaving thief of time. Midlife: To look back, or to
look ahead? To race against time, or to sit and watch the minutes
tick away? Money: In spite of it, or because of it? Risking everything.
Risking nothing.
“Los Super Amigos”, a sign-making business, provides the
setting for the stories that unfold around the lives of the people
who, day in and day out, share a cramped work space, producing some
of the hand-painted signs that dot the urban landscape of Mexico
City. Whether struggling to stay afloat, or waiting to sink along
with the ship, either is preferable in the company of others. Seven
individuals talk about what keeps people together.
Carlos 50min
made by: Kees Hin, Linda Bannink, Diego Gutiérrez
“I find it interesting –the observation that there’s
a monster inside of me, eating away at my body.” Carlos responds.
He fights back. He does so against the stereotype, against the physical
handicap, against The City. A city able to swallow a people, a building,
a struggle, a wish. The wish to blend in? The wish to stand out?
The questions that any urban denizen toils with on a daily basis.
To be left alone, yet to be paid attention to. Carlos forces us
to dwell within the epicenter of this conflict, and hence, of his
typicality, of his normal-ness.
Hernando 38min
made by: Kees Hin, Diego Gutiérrez
To want to make a change, to hope to leave a mark. Those who want
it, who wish it, are often the people who make a place for themselves
within the publics’ eye. Inside the complexity of a country
saturated with corruption, poverty, and holographic socio-political
stances, what does it take? Who does one have to be in order to
place oneself on a platform, to be scrutinized, to be susceptible
to the judgment of those who prefer to stand in the side-lines?
To do “the right thing”? To fight against the vertigo
of anonymity?
Hernando’s headstrong idealism, his glaring youth, his tenacious
ambition, are the delicate fibers that weave his humanness. An important
piece of the urban puzzle, Hernando guides us through his own, piecing
together the pieces of his system, as broad or as narrow as any
other. What, or whom, is indispensable to one’s life? Simple
question- simple answer. Or is it?
El Rey 36min
made by: Yael Bartana, Diego Gutiérrez
Xochimilco: “land of flowers”, the “Mexican Venice”.
For some, an idyllic locale, for others, a wasteland. For a few,
home. For all, a tourist attraction. What is it like to grow up
as part of the regional folklore, to grow up being observed? What
is it like to be the observer? What of the one-hour intimate moments
of exchange, after which we come away knowing nothing about one
another, other than what we want to know, after which all faces
blend into two distinctive ones: the tourist and the tour guide?
A family of rowers, row us along the channels of Xochimilco, as
one would guide a visitor through the hallways of one’s flat.
Which doors does one close? Which does one leave open? What happens
when the visitor asks to see what lies behind those closed doors?
Xochimilco is a place where pride and tradition meet pride and tradition.
Where the impermeability of the spaces we delineate remain steadfast,
sustaining a “balance”. And balance, they say, is an important
skill when it comes to remaining afloat.
Jorge 53min
made by: Jorge Luis Pérez, Joris Brouwers, Patricio Larrambebere,
Diego Gutiérrez
Say “CHEESE!”
“Women, money, and cameras... three things that make me be
false.” Jorge, the reincarnation of Orson Welles, longs to
see Charles Bukovsky in person. That’s that Jorge. The obsessive-compulsive,
allergy-ridden, beer-guzzling photographer, filmmaker, student,
romantic, vandal, poet.
Each of us creates her/his own image. If life is a stage, then this
stage is certainly set. Whether or not one can –be it actor,
filmmaker, or spectator- recognize the edge of that stage, is another
story. The vertiginous latitudes of Jorge’s world are as safe
or as dangerous as one’s psyche will allow. It all depends
on how far one is willing to go.
Antenna: the film 57min
made by: Sebastián Díaz Morales, Barbara Hin, Kees
Hin, Diego Gutiérrez.
with: Erando González, Rodrigo Johnson, Chantal Rosse, Juan
Manuel Báez, & others.
One-quarter suspense thriller, one-quarter pulp fiction, one-quarter
documentary, one-quarter in-between-these-all, “Antenna”
is the film that brings together all of these stories (Tita, Los
Super Amigos, Carlos, Hernando, El Rey, Jorge), in a play between
the real and the fictitious. This boundary blurs, bringing into
question televised simulation and the response it generates, as
products of social imaginary and consensus. A mysterious signal
that interferes regular televised programming throughout the city
which provokes panic among mass media executives, spawns a bizarre
persecution. The shadowy bandit, the ill-fated private-eye, the
unexplainable infiltrations; all of the traditional elements of
the accustomed plot line, mix and re-mix, to finally reveal an open-ended
question: Do we really want to know what’s out there?
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