El General
International Spotlight
(Mexico , USA, 2008, 83 mins)
In Spanish with English subtitles
HD Cam Frame Rate 23.98
Directed By: Natalia Almada
Producers: Daniela Alatorre, Natalia Almada
Cinematographer: Chuy Chavez
Editor: Natalia Almada
Music: Shahzad Ismaily, Marc Ribot, John Zorn
"I can't see the past. I only see the long shadow it has cast over the present," says filmmaker Natalia Almada. But the figure casting the shadow is one she aches to see clearly: Her great grandfather Plutarcho Elias Calles, a.k.a. "The Mexican Mussolini," whose presidency is best known for executing priests.
This poetic indictment of a century of government apathy for the Mexican people pairs interviews with today's working poor with found tapes of Almada's grandmother trying to record her memories of her father before her own death. While exploring the human contradiction that allowed Calles to send his daughter to Catholic school in America while his soldiers waged war against the power-encroaching church—whose continued influence is shown in dreamlike images of the devout pilgrimaging to the Virgin of Guadalupe on their hands and knees—Almada shows us the legacy that matters: the unreprieved poverty of the people, workers who pound and sell the same tortillas at the same worn stall that their parents and grandparents rented and who know their children will do the same.
Host Latino Public Broadcasting/National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)
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