One of Mexico’s most celebrated film events, the Morelia International Film Festival/Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, kicks off its 12th edition tonight, Friday, October 17, presenting 87 films before it winds down on Sunday, October 26. Focusing exclusively on Mexican cinema, the event spotlights twelve shorts among its 62 shorts lineup and twelve feature documentaries within its 25 feature selections. The following looks at some of the latter:
Feature selections profiling families include Eva Aridjis’ CHUY, THE WEREWOLF (CHUY, EL HOMBRE LOBO) (pictured), about a family with a rare disorder that results in excessive facial hair; Hatuey Viveros’ COFFEE: SONGS OF SMOKE (CAFÉ: CANTOS DE HUMO), in which a father’s passing is felt by his children; and Itzel Martínez del Cañizo’s UPSIDE DOWN HOME (EL HOGAR AL REVÉS), a portrait of three Tijuana teens left home alone.
Personal storytelling figures in Fernando Llanos’ MATRIA, an investigation into the filmmaker’s would-be Nazi-fighting grandfather’s secrets; and Gabriela D. Ruvalcaba’s THE DANCE OF MEMORY (LA DANZA DEL HIPOCAMPO) (pictured), tracing the director’s memory through old home movies.
Other intriguing offerings include: Diego Gutiérrez and Danniel Danniel’s TRACES (SPOREN (HUELLAS)) (pictured), a meditation on the death of a solitary man; and Lourdes Grobet’s BERING. BALANCE AND RESISTANCE (BERING. EQUILIBRIO Y RESISTENCIA), a Flahertian ethnographic exploration of the people of the Bering Strait.
what (not) to doc 