Mexican Documentary Movies

There are promises that are impossible to keep. My uncle José made such a promise as a child in 1963 to my mother Ana Luisa, to whom he declared a special kind of devotion. There are always bonds like this between siblings establishing mysterious complicites. This is what José declared to little Ana Luisa: "The day that you die, I´m going to die with you".

There’s the megalopolis of Mexico City and a tiny apartment. There’s the street singer and his mother, drowned in her prayers. There’s reality and routine and Mexico’s magic reshaping it all. There’s the inexplicable and the obvious. A contemporary Mexican tale.

Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza is from Santa Maria Quiegolani, an indigenous community located in Oaxaca, Mexico. After she was denied the right of becoming president of her community, just because she was a woman, Eufrosina began a struggle to achieve gender equality in indigenous communities, questioning the uses and traditions and defying the zone’s chiefs.

Echo of the Mountain takes a look at the life and work of Santos de la Torre, a great Huichol artist who, like his people, lives in oblivion. Despite having made a great mural for the metro station Palais Royal – Musée du Louvre, Santos lives isolated and ignored in his country. This documentary follows his pilgrimage to Wirikuta, where he asks gods for permission to make a new mural; his journey across 385 miles of the Peyote Route, and Santos's creative process during the making of a new mural which aims to illustrate the history, mythology and religious traditions of the Huichol people.

In the late 1970s, Marcel fled Catalonia to avoid conscription into the Spanish military. For 30 years he has been living in the tropical forests of Costa Rica, where he hosts ayahuasca ceremonies for young seekers from the West.

Immersive documentary which takes us n an intimate journey to the inner life of public baths through the voices of three characters: Felipe, the main clerk since 1984; Juana, a street sweeper in Mexico City's downtown; and Jose, a frequent client of more than forty years. Bath of Life becomes a confessionary for those who gather around the same place: the sauna.

An elderly woman narrates how she was tricked, robbed and forced to marry her captor at the age of 19 and how, many years later, she found her freedom.

Twenty years ago, director Christiane Burkhard’s parents died in a plane crash. Now she has made a documentary, in collaboration with her sister, about remembering and coming to terms with the facts. First, she looks for accounts in the former homes and from family and friends of the couple. She also has a large number of old Super-8 recordings. Her mother was an enthusiastic amateur filmmaker, who captured all the major family events on film. Together with her sister, Burkhard watches the footage of the smiling faces of her parents. Making this documentary becomes a self-conceived ritual that should help her bid farewell to an unreal and unaccepted past. The subdued tone suits the difficulties all those involved have talking about the event, even after twenty years.

The life on Zapotal Santa Cruz, a little town in Veracruz, Mexico. Canícula follows the school of the Dance of the Flyers and the people who surrounds the zone where youngs learn an ancient Mesoamerican ceremony performed by totonacs during the summer.

This is the story of a man who challenged his country’s institutions by proclaiming himself legitimate president. This is the story of how the controversial Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who led the polls during 4 years, lost the election by less than half percent. It all begins while he is still Mexico City’s mayor, up to his self proclamation as president and his actions during the first days of Felipe Calderón’s government.

What does what we teach children inside and outside the classroom reveal about the world? How can we effectively and meaningfully communicate to them what is happening around them? The news that Teacher Celeste will leave her class has filled the children with sadness, as she has only a few days left before moving to another school. Together, they experience a September full of movements, directions, and revelations, in the beloved universe of a classroom in a Mexican village.

Sound progression of two opposite landscapes.

Documentary about the Mexican writer José Revueltas, imprisoned in the Lecumberri prison after the end of the 1968 student-popular movement.

A deeply human portrait of the chaotic reality of the US - Mexico border. Full of stunnig images and crafted like a classic city-symphony where the sum of the pieces add up to a larger whole, Purgatorio, a Journey Into the Heart of the Border brings together a universe of small stories to create a compelling and visceral cinematic experience that takes audiences into the very soul of life on the border.

The documentary portrays the life and history of Mexican wrestlers who for various reasons have decided to participate in this contact sport characterizing exotic characters. The exotic refers to the strange, the mysterious, the weird, the unusual. Particularly in wrestling exotic style refers to refined athletes in their clothing, well groomed, with a very special walk, occasionally thin effeminate. Not rude, not technical, but not rare height or size, these mannered gladiators have represented a third option within the Mexican rings, some shamelessly displaying their sexual preference and thereby defying the homophobic, or secretly homophily, mood of the wrestling fans.

This is a documentary about the mexican presidential election in july 2th 2006, in which the left candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, accused fraud against him and the people. This is the story of their fight for democracy.

John Calder, Samuel Beckett’s British publisher, moved to Montreuil, a town to the east of Paris, where Calder met with Billie Whitelaw, the muse, so to speak, of Beckett’s stage work, who is now relegated to a nursing home for actors.

In this deeply moving dialogue between mother and son, Mexican Tzotzil director Xun Sero confronts his past with honesty, understanding and forgiveness. Growing up without a father, he blamed his mother for the paternal absence in his life; this, for him, became his first act of violence against the feminine and his own mother. Societal pressure and shame prevented his mother from speaking about the realities of violence in her childhood and within her partnership with the director's father. Guided by the desire to understand who his mother is, Sero has created an extraordinarily sensitive first film where both mother and son open a dialogue in an attempt at self-discovery. Bravely, together, they open the door to a room of darkness and unknowns and begin to walk down a path of healing.

El Remolino is a tiny community on the banks of the widest river in Mexico, it is home to unusual characters whose lives oscillate between an attachment to the paradise like surroundings and the uncertainty that looms year after year, when high floods cover their community. El Remolino is a reflection upon the human capacity to adapt and coexist with nature's changes.

The search for the right partner, place, and moment to start a family is one of nature's most crucial journeys. This breathtaking story of love, survival, and perseverance follows Caribbean flamingos through one of the most fragile stages of their lives. With Julieta Venegas’ voice and Bryce Dessner’s music setting the tone, this film offers a unique and immersive cinematic experience, capturing the beauty and struggles of these extraordinary birds.

The life stories of Juan Francisco's grandparents and parents, who arrived in Mexico in 1939 as refugees at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). A family saga, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present day.

In a southern Mexico village, young deaf students are taking on an unusual challenge: to make a movie out of their dreams. While Eric and his friends watch films and discuss ideas, their dreams begin to work their way into the documentary itself. Both a study of the students lives and the basic visual language of film

Paul Leduc, Rafael Castanedo, Óscar Menéndez and other students filmed the CNH assemblies and took to the streets to record the rallies, demonstrations and confrontations that the various student groups held against the police and the army throughout 1968.

This is a story about the families of those that once were our witnesses, our eyes and our voice, but were threatened, had to leave Mexico and forced to live in exile, seeking for political asylum. It is not about powerful journalists, it is about invisible reporters that represent the weakest links of the news network’s chain and now are living in an immigration limbo.

The film tells the story of Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of the wealthiest municipality in Latin America, located in the North of Mexico. He presents himself as a polemical figure who takes justice into his own hands in order to "clean" his municipality of the drug cartels' presence. Mauricio is a key character to better understand the present situation in Mexico and through the unusual views of this politician, the audience will be a privileged witnesses of an scenario where political tasks and excessive violence mingle with one another.

Bartolomé, a teacher in a multigrade school on the mountains of Chiapas in Mexico, knows well that pedagogy is not based on textbooks and cannot fit behind the four walls of a classroom. A true sower of knowledge unravels his philosophy and method and becomes a beacon of hope for the creation of a humanistic model of education based on curiosity and love for the outside world.

Documentary about a lodging house, owned by Rosa Carbajal, at the corner of Shakespare and Víctor Hugo streets.

April 1994 in the Lacandona Jungle, Chiapas, México. The Zapatista women talk about the living conditions of Mexican indigenous populations and the life of peasant women. They explain the reasons for their struggle and their uprising.

In a context with few possibilities of mobility, Diego and his mother are faced with the need to share time and space. Household chores and interviews accompany their routine, suddenly, a malfunctioning boiler interrupts life. Diego's girlfriend's birthday is coming up and with it several decisions to make.

Margarita is a woman who lives in the streets of Mexico City, a character who moves between lucidity and madness.

A portrait of the personal journey of Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano during his third presidential campaign. It is a moment in contemporary history told from the experiences of the defeated opposing political group. A fundamental piece of the history of Mexico that usually does not reach the public, for it is not written by the victorious; it’s akin to being invited backstage at an unimaginable performance. This story lacks scandal or corruption. It shows how politics takes place in the highest levels in Mexico and shows the human side of a popular leader.

Efrain, known as the Reaper, has worked at a slaughterhouse for 25 years. We will discover his deep relationship with death and his struggle to live.

At the foot of Tepozteco, a sacred hill that governs the winds and fertility, lies the small town of Tepoztlán. Against this backdrop, fifteen-year-old Karla's body and mind are undergoing a revolution.

Mexico, March 2015. Carmen Aristegui, incorruptible journalist, has been fired from the radio station where she has worked for years. Supported by more than 18 million listeners, Carmen continues her fight. Her goal: raising awareness and fighting against misinformation. The film tells the story of this quest: difficult and dangerous, but essential to the health of democracy. A story in which resistance becomes a form of survival.

The glimpse into the life of Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles. Past and present collide as filmmaker Natalia Almada brings to life audio recordings she inherited about her great-grandfather, General Plutarco Elías Calles, a revolutionary general who became president of Mexico in 1924. Time is blurred in this visually arresting portrait of a family and country living under the shadows of the past.

Cinema and painting establish a fluid dialogue and begins with introspection in the themes and forms of the plastic work of a woman tormented by the elongated specters, originating from her obsessions and nightmares.

Documentary film about the daily odyssey that involves moving from home to work in three different cities of the world: Mexico City, Istanbul and Los Angeles. Three stories, three cities and three characters in different contexts but similar realities that survive long journeys and time of life lost.

A look at the renowned writer Roberto Bolaño, and the turmoil caused by his strange relationship with Chile, his homeland. We approach the writer through his friends, his irony and his genius, traveling across Mexico, Spain and Chile.

In the heart of the Peruvian Amazon, Saor, a young androgynous Indian, carries a coffin. He is taking Valentina, his lover, back to her native village to bury her. When Valentina left this village years ago, before becoming a transgender singer in a faraway city, people here knew her as Pol. Valentina's past and death remain an enigma. Yet bit by bit, through his encounters with the people of the village, Saor begins to perceive what connected them to Pol. Sensitive to the world around him, Saor, like a Shaman, enters their memories. Saor starts to understand that, like all homosexuals persecuted by Shining Path terrorists, Pol lived in terror. In the village cemetery, between rage and bitterness, Saor attends the burial of Valentina's body. A ceremony that is both a burial and an exhumation.

An elderly hoarder seeks to overcome time and memory to find closure and redemption in the twilight of his life.