Historias de vida en la carretera

Corazón Oaxaqueño

Sentinels of Silence is a 1971 short documentary film on ancient Mexican civilizations. The film was directed and written by Mexican filmmaker Robert Amram, and is notable for being the first and only short film to win two Academy Awards.

Migranta tells the stories of Vicky, Betty and Lety, (three mothers who have come to Canada from Mexico as part of the federal government’s Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program) as they face calculated risks, difficult choices and harsh realities while navigating, work and life in Canada while being separated from families and communities they support.

Monarch butterflies have brought hope to the darkest times of people's lives. In Mexico, when they arrive for Day of the Dead, they are thought to be souls of the departed. Coincidence?

American Ocelot tells the story of one of the most endangered and beautiful wild cats in the United States — a species so elusive that high-quality images and video have never been captured until now. With fewer than 100 individuals remaining in the US, the ocelot is critically endangered, genetically isolated, and only exists in Texas.

Is the story of a generation of thieves who achieved their greatest victories in the sixties; their distinctive code of ethics, the various categories of delinquents inhabiting the city’s streets, their alliances with high ranking police officials that allowed them to operate, the betrayals that followed, and the price they ended up paying.

The film portraits the stage previous to the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution, from the end of Porfirio Díaz´ government, the social volatility, the ephemeral government of Madero and the presence of the working class in the figures of Villa and Zapata, until the signing if the Constitution of 1917. All of this through moving images, filmed during those events mainly by the Alva brothers, filmmakers of that time. Those images let us perceive the contradictory and shuddered glance of the people of that period.

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.

Diana Mariscal reached a moment of fame in the sixties, when at just 18 years of age she was the lead actress of the movie Fando and Lis by Alejandro Jodorowsky. The moment seemed to trigger a promising career, but her public image faded little by little until disappearing. Forty years later the traces of her existence have not been entirely erased.

This Traveltalk series short chronicles the sights and sounds on a train ride from Veracruz to Mexico City.

This Traveltalk series short visits two of the most important cities on Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula.

Rosa is a Mexican woman who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally to Austin, Texas. Some years later, she was jailed under suspicion of murder and then taken to trial. This film demonstrates how the judicial process, the verdict, the separation from her family, and the helplessness of being imprisoned in a foreign country make Rosa’s story an example of the hard life of Mexican migrants in the United States.

The first meeting of a U.S. president and a Mexican president took place when William Howard Taft met Porfirio Díaz on 16 October 1909, in El Paso. The meeting was celebrated in both El Paso and Juárez with parades, elaborate receptions, lavish gifts and large crowds. Shot by the pioneers of Mexican Cinema the brothers Alva. This is a typical example of newsreel material prior to the Mexican revolution. By hemerographical references we know that this footage was presented to the then president of Mexico General Porfirio Díaz in the Castle of Chapultepec, then residence of the president.

“Aguas Negras” is an experimental documentary about the Cuautitlán River. The film examines the passage of time and the pollution of the river by focusing on conversations with multiple generations of women in the filmmaker's family that have grown up by the river in a municipality identified as having the highest perception of insecurity in the State of Mexico.

Tells the story of Maria, a Central American immigrant who is forced to leave her family in search for a better life. On her way to the United States, she is forced to cross Mexico where she experiences a nightmare.

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.

As police and DEA agents battle sophisticated cartels, rural, economically-disadvantaged users and dealers–whose addiction to ICE and lack of job opportunities have landed them in an endless cycle of poverty and incarceration–are caught in the middle.

Inspired by an exclusive interview and performance footage of Chavela Vargas shot in 1991 and guided by her unique voice, the film weaves an arresting portrait of a woman who dared to dress, speak, sing, and dream her unique life into being.

Big Rig (2008) is a documentary film by Doug Pray about long-haul truck drivers. The film consists of a series of interviews with different drivers, focusing on both their personal life stories and also the life and culture of truck drivers in the United States.

Lake Patzcuaro, located 230 miles west of Mexico City, is one of the highest and most picturesque bodies of water in Mexico. The heritage of the indigenous peoples of the area, the Tarascans, still prevails, such as the production of lacquer-ware handicrafts, and the means of hunting and fishing, the latter which uses nets shaped like large butterfly wings. Although most current day Tarascans are Roman Catholic, they have not totally abandoned their indigenous pagan gods. On Janitzio, one of the many islands in the lake, stands a large statue commemorating José María Morelos, a prominent figure in Mexican liberation and a great benefactor to the Tarascans. Janitzio is also the inspiration for many famous paintings. The town of Tzintzuntzan just inland from the lake's shore acts as the regional center for the market and for festivals.