Mixtec-Zapotec antiquity reverberates in an instant. Their ancient voices whisper the memory of time and invoke deities that reveal deep secrets etched in stone. Quartz Deities is a look at the ungraspable, a liminal window that leads to mineral memories where the apparent univocal directionality of time is interrupted, diluted with the forces of nature and the cosmos.
This documentary rescues the valuable work of Martha Colmenares, an indigenous woman from the Zapotec highlands, who in the 1980s filmed the life and customs of her own community, becoming a pioneer of indigenous documentaries. And for the first time, her forgotten story, for forty years, will no longer be invisible.
Historias Invisibles
2022
0
The communities of San Martin Tilcajete and San Antonio Arrazola in Oaxaca, Mexico are best known for being the main source of the "Alebrijes" (wood carving) in the state; a relatively new but powerful tradition in mexican folklore. In both communities, there is a family that claims they're father started this tradition in all the state of Oaxaca.
Sueños en Copal
2019
0
Takeda is a film about the universality of the human being seen thru the eyes of a Japanese painter that has adopted the Mexican culture.
Takeda
2017
7
Noemí, an Ayuukjä'äy woman reflects on the loss of her native tongue with a voice that blends into day to day life in Cerro Costoche community located in the Mixe mountain rage of Oaxaca.
Mutsk Wuäjxtë’
2024
0
The anguish a woman experienced on the night of September 7, 2017, caused by the 8.2 magnitude earthquake that struck southern Mexico and the danger of another impending disaster.
Tremor
2021
0
The Mejia family emigrated from Oaxaca to Fresno, California 40 years ago. Filmmaker Trisha ZIff filmed the family in 1996, and returns now to see the changes that have settled over them, and follows the family on their return to Mexico.
Oaxacalifornia: El Regreso
2021
0
Encouraged by the polychrome onirism of the Ñuine land, Desiderio (58), a farmer from the south of Mexico, offers an offering to the Tupa, the ancient spirit of the hills to whom his grandparents went to to ask for rain and harvest. At nightfall, as he rests at the foot of a campfire, that mysterious being guides him to the core of an ancestral memory.
Ñuhu: Seres Sagrados
2022
10
In Mexico, a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced and discriminated against, Lupita, a survivor of one of the worst massacres in the country’s history, finds her voice in a movement led by indigenous women. The film intimately follows Lupita, a Tzotzil Maya woman, as she takes on the responsibility to be the spokeswoman of her people. Part lyrical testimony, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the world.
Lupita - Que Retiemble La Tierra
2019
7
Documentary about the aftermath of the earthquake that shook Juchitán, on the Mexican Pacific coast. It tells the story of Dxani -muxe seamstress- and Jacinto -mason- and how their lives were radically changed by the strongest earthquake that hit this community; and the poor response of the corrupt authorities.
Después del temblor
2021
0
México-raised and currently Chicago-based artist Sofía Fernández Díaz details her process of adorning found objects and handmade textiles with beads, dyes, and melted wax to imbue them with new meaning, and to give them patitas.
The Studio of Sofía Fernández Díaz
2023
0
The Day of the Dead is one of the most deeply rooted and celebrated traditions in our country and when this festivity takes place in a magical town, the event becomes something memorable. The Day of the Dead tradition in Huautla de Jiménez, Oaxaca begins on October 27 with the arrival of the chá to xo´o´ and the celebration lasts six days. Hand in hand with its inhabitants, we will take a tour to witness all the colors, smells, flavors, sounds, textures, and visions that surround this ancestral festival and that of the Mazatecs.
El Camino de los Muertos
2020
0
After emigrating from his hometown in search of a better life, Chef Gaudencio Ruiz Mateo, defying all possibilities, found success at the highest level of his craft while longing to return home.
El Chef Zapoteco
0
Oda a la Máquina
0
Plant Explorer Richard Evans Schultes was a real life Indiana Jones whose discoveries of hallucinogenic plants laid the foundation for the psychedelic sixties. Now in this two hour History Channel TV Special, his former student Wade Davis, follows in his footsteps to experience the discoveries that Schultes brought to the western world. Shot around the planet, from Canada to the Amazon, we experience rarely seen native hallucinogenic ceremonies and find out the true events leading up to the Psychedelic Sixties. Featuring author/adventurer Wade Davis ("Serpent and the Rainbow"), Dr. Andrew Weil, the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir and many others, this program tells the story of the discovery of peyote, magic mushrooms and beyond: one man's little known quest to classify the Plants of the Gods. Richard Evans Schultes revolutionized science and spawned another revolution he never imagined.
Peyote to LSD: A Psychedelic Odyssey
2008
5
Corazón Oaxaqueño
2000
0
The imprint of the past is made present by the return of three migrants to a community in the upper Mixteca region of Oaxaca, where the three stories intersect.
Nudo Mixteco
2021
7
The exploding cork. Endless tiny bubbles floating up and up in the glass. An indulgence. A celebration. A seduction. A triumph. This is the essence of Champagne, isn’t it? But it’s not just bubbles in a glass that makes the wine, or the mystique. Only sparkling wine produced within the boundaries of the Champagne region is truly “Champagne.” At first glance, the region is not an obvious source of romance. Champagne’s history is grim and bloody, swept by war and destruction from Attila the Hun to the filthy trenches of WWI and the Nazi depredations of WWII. The environment for winemaking is desperately hard — northerly latitude, chalky soil, copious rain, frost, rot. Yet it’s these difficulties that help make the wine unique.
A Year in Champagne
2014
6
'9-Man' is an independent feature documentary about an isolated and exceptionally athletic Chinese-American sport that's much more than a pastime. Since the 1930s, young men have played this gritty streetball game competitively in the alleys and parking lots of Chinatown. At a time when anti-Chinese sentiment and laws like the Chinese Exclusion Act forced Chinese restaurant workers and laundrymen to socialize exclusively amongst themselves, nine-man offered both escape and fraternity for men who were separated from their families in China and facing extreme discrimination and distrust. Pivoting between oil-spotted Chinatown parking lots and jellyfish-filled banquet scenes, the film captures the spirit of nine-man as players not only battle for a championship but fight to preserve a sport that holds so much history.
9-Man
2014
0
This film explains what James Ensor (1860-1949) meant for the development of art and makes palpable where he got his inspiration from.
James Ensor: Demons Teasing Me
2010
8
Director Kevin Booth navigates through the cutting edge of Cannabis research while becoming a foster parent to a child court ordered to take powerful mind altering drugs.
American Drug War 2: Cannabis Destiny
2013
6