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Documentaries from LAVA
Contemporary Mexico

February 2002



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Editor's Note:
The documentaries listed below chronicle some of the diverse experiences of contemporary Mexicans, from agricultural work in the fields of California to the armed uprisings in Chiapas and Guerrero.

To order any of these tapes, contact us by email at info@lavavideo.org, by phone 212-243-4804, or by fax 212-243-2007. Our website, www.latinamericanvideo.org, allows for secure purchases by credit card.


Chiapas


Chiapas: An Unfinished Story   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Cristian Calonico
Documentary   90 minutes   1995
With English subtitles
A visual itinerary of the beginnings of the armed uprising of the Zapatista army in Chiapas on January 1st, 1994, through the developments of 1995. The doucmentary chronicles the impact the uprising had among the inhabitants of Mexico City and the rest of the country.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95


Marcos: Word and History   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Cristian Calonico
Documentary   90 minutes   1995
With English subtitles
Subcomandante Marcos offers a historical perspective of the Zapatista movement in Chiapas, Mexico. From his own arrival to the Lacandona forest and his first contact with the indigenous communities, through the 1994 uprising of the EZLN. Marcos discusses issues such as the role of the women who participate in the EZLN, the fall of the Soviet Union, and the future of children.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95



Guerrero


EPR: A Return to Arms, The   Get Details
Documentary   40 minutes   1996
With English subtitles
Two years after Mexico was rocked by the unexpected appearance of the Zapatista Army in Chiapas, the guerrilla group EPR (Ejercito Popular Revolucionario) emerged in Guerrero. This documentary gives an overview of the group's development, and contains interviews with historian Lorenzo Meyer and journalist Miguel Angel Granados Chapa.


EPR Up Close, The   Get Details
Documentary   43 minutes   1997
Dubbed into English
Contains interviews with the three principal leaders of the guerrilla group EPR (Ejercito Popular Revolucionario), which is based in Guerrero, one of Mexico's poorest states. Contains shots of the group training for battle, and an interview with Carlos Montemayor.



Cinema


Regarding Bunuel   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Jose Luis Lopez-Linares, Javier Riojo
Documentary   105 minutes   2000
With English subtitles
A thorough, entertaining documentary on the life and work of Spanish filmmaker Luis Bunuel, who filmed some of his most important works while living in Mexico. Using archival photographs, footage, and clips from his films, the video paints a complex portrait of one of the century's most revered filmmakers. Includes footage from an interview with Bunuel before his death, as well as interviews with various family members, friends, and actors. Author Carlos Monsivais and filmmaker Arturo Ripstein also weigh in.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95



African Roots


Forgotten Roots, The   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Rafael Rebollar
Documentary   50 minutes   2001
With English subtitles
Mexico has always imagined itself a nation forged from the encounter between Spaniards and indigenous people in the colonial past. But there are roots that have been forgotten, if not deliberately erased. This impressively researched documentary, the first of a three part series, acknowledges and explores the history and influential cultural heritage of Africans in Mexico. It tells how African people were brought as slaves and servants to the conquistadors, and came to occupy a variety of places in Mexican colonial society, from exploited mine and plantation workers to wealthy landowners. Their story in Mexico is one of both resistance and acculturation, as some slaves rebelled against their masters and others had children with them to advance themselves socially. This video uses both historical documentation and the example of Mexico’s dazzling hybrid traditions to illustrate the deep and pervasive footprints left by African culture in Mexican culture and society. The crowning example is the city of Veracruz, that bustling port of the “Afro-Andalusian Caribbean,” with its bubbling hodgepodge of faces, races, and musical expressions that was the point of entry for the majority of the slaves to enter Mexico. But the video emphasizes that Africans were present throughout the country, and works towards a reconciliation with those African roots of Mexican culture that have been forgotten for too long.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95



Urban Planning


We're Still Here   Get Details and Purchasing Info
Greg Berger
Documentary   30 minutes   2001
With English subtitles
A lively and highly informative look at the human mismanagement that has made Mexico City a magnet for "natural" disasters. Narrated by a wise-cracking skeleton, the video shows how millions of “chilangos” (Mexico City residents) live under the constant threat of floods, gas explosions, and disasters like the 1985 earthquake that killed more than 10,000, which loom threateningly on the Mexico City horizon like the active volcano Popocatéptl. But, as the video tells us, “the problem is not Popo, but poo-poo” – less dramatic but equally deadly problems like blocked sewage, shoddy construction, and inadequate engineering that could at any rainstorm cause avalanches in the poor neighborhoods that ring the hills surrounding the city. These latter problems are not dealt with by a government which funds high-profile programs like seismology even as it ignores the more problems that effect millions of citizens everyday. Using file footage from past disasters and interviews with scientists, anthropologists, engineers, community activists, and regular folks, the video convincingly ties the lack of effective disaster prevention to state paternalism and government demagoguery, pointing out that the most effective policies have been made by concerned community members. Instead of putting the community at the mercy of an arrogant and mismanaged government, it says, the state should make itself available to its citizens, reversing the power dynamic in the city and allowing those who know the dangers best and are affected the most to build the necessary infrastructure and awareness.
Purchase Price: $ 99.95




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