Nicolás Pereda Selects: Recent Films from Mexico

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One of the most distinctive voices in contemporary cinema, and a professor of film and media at UC Berkeley, Nicolás Pereda is a thoughtful observer and participant in Mexico’s independent film scene. Impressed with the wealth of great Mexican movies in the last decade, we asked Pereda to select some of his favorites, along with a program of his own short films, to screen at BAMPFA this spring.
Of his selection, Pereda writes: “These films exemplify a kind of Mexican cinema committed to subtle formal experimentation, crafting distinctive structures and rhythms that remain unaffected by the constraints of commercial cinema. Critically engaging with broader social, political, or environmental issues, each of these films simultaneously delves into the nuanced interior lives of their characters. Notably, every film but one, are directed by women, although this wasn’t a deliberate choice. Maybe, the historical dominance of men in the Mexican film industry has resulted in derivative works rooted in industrial conventions, and it is perhaps at the periphery of this industry that novel approaches to the medium can flourish, allowing for a diversity of voices and perspectives to shape the cinematic landscape.”
An audience favorite at the Mill Valley Film Festival in 2023, Lila Avilés’s Tótem uses an observational approach and child’s-eye view to capture a day in the life of a family struggling with grief as they prepare for the birthday party of a family member who is dying of cancer. Two new films from Tatiana Huezo-one documentary, The Echo, and one fiction, Prayers for the Stolen-chronicle the lives of girls and women in remote rural communities. Huezo will be in person to present both of her films. In Yulene Olaizola’s mysterious and mythic Tragic Jungle, a young woman escapes the unwanted attention of an old settler by fleeing into and joining forces with the wilderness. Natalia Almada made documentaries before Everything Else, and she applies the restrained cinematic rigor she honed in her nonfiction work to depict the gradual emotional shift of an alienated Mexico City bureaucrat. One of the most ubiquitous and compelling performers in Mexican cinema today, Teresa Sánchez (who also appears in Avilés’s Tótem and Pereda’s The Palace), stars as a proud but struggling independent tequila factory owner in Juan Pablo González’s moving and suspenseful Dos Estaciones.
-Kate MacKay, Associate Film Curator