Friday and Saturday Night: Young Women Filmmakers from Mexico

May 6, 2013

This Friday and Saturday (May 10-11), LACMA celebrates its freshly reinstalled Latin American art galleries with a special film program: Young Women Filmmakers from Mexico—a special screening organized with AMBULANTE.  Established in 2005 by wunderkinds of Mexican cinema Gael Garcia Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz, AMBULANTE is a non-profit organization that champions documentary film as a prompt for social change and critique.  The organization offers grants, training programs, workshops, and film screenings throughout Mexico and abroad, including areas of Mexico in which such resources are seldom available.

This weekend's screenings offer four films at LACMA, which will be followed by conversations with some of the directors. Each of the films is in Spanish with English subtitles, and a translator will be on-hand for each of the Q&As.  The best part? Admission to the screenings is free! (Tickets are required; reserve online here.) The special program is hosted by AMBULANTE and supported by the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles and the Latin American art department at LACMA.

Friday, May 10 | 7:00 pm
El General (The General), directed by Natalia Almada, 2009

In this film, director Natalia Almada reflects on the history of her great-grandfather Plutarco Elías Calles, Mexico’s controversial president from 1924-1928.

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Friday, May 10 | 9:30 pm
Intimidades de Shakespeare y Víctor Hugo (Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies), directed by Yulene Olaizola, 2008

At the intersection of Shakespeare and Victor Huge streets in Mexico City, lodging house owner Rosa Carbajal met the affable Jorge Riosse, a young tenant who would soon become her closest friend. After his unexpected death, details emerge that jeopardize the persona of the man Rosa thought she knew.

Saturday, May 11 | 5:00 pm
El Lugar Más Pequeño (The Tiniest Place), directed by Tatiana Huezo, 2011

The emotional, social, and cultural scars of the El Salvadorian civil war are revisited through an array of first-person narratives and striking cinematography.

Saturday, May 11 | 8:00 pm
Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside), directed by Lucia Gaja, 2007

The story of 17-year-old Rosa, a Mexican citizen living illegally in the United States and held on the suspicion of murder, offers insight into the experience and treatment of immigrants in America’s judicial system.