Overview
Mexico Rising: The Films of Nicolás Pereda
Oct 13-27, 2011 • Screening Room
Nicolás Pereda, at the tender age of 27, has quickly amassed a body of work comprising five extraordinary features and one short. Widely screened—and acclaimed—on the film festival circuit, they have enjoyed little exposure in the US until now. Very much of his moment, Pereda combines aspects of some of the most notable trends in contemporary world cinema, including elements of deadpan minimalism, slacker cinema, the documentary/fiction hybrid and long-take formalism. Pereda’s films are among the chief testaments to the incredible vitality and creativity of Mexican cinema today. Program notes adapted from Harvard Film Archive.
Events
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Summer of GoliathOct 13, 2011 7:30pm
Oct 16, 2011 2:00pm
Screening RoomA soldier with violent urges and a woman gripped by fear that her husband’s unexplained absence is permanent... Summer of Goliath is a quiet (at times unsettling) study of violence, masculinity and family, set against the
sun-drenched beauty of its small-town, rural setting (2010, 76 min, 35mm). Preceded by the short Interview with the Earth, a mesmerizing study of grief that traces the echoes of a child’s accidental death across the lives of his friends and their families. (2009, 18 min, digital)Buy tickets:
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Juntos (Together)Oct 20, 2011 7:30pm
Screening RoomAn intimate and offbeat portrait of a strained relationship, Juntos features a young man in search of his lost dog and the cause of the widening rift with his moody girlfriend. Pereda makes humorous use of the cramped, dysfunctional apartment where most of the film takes place, staging deadpan gags that recall the meditative comedy of Tsai Ming-liang. (2009, 73 min, digital)
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Where Are Their Stories?Oct 23, 2011 2:00pm
Screening RoomPereda’s debut feature showcases his carefully restrained narrative and visual style with its meticulously understated story of a young man trying to prevent his uncles from selling his elderly grandmother’s farm. With Pereda’s regular actors Teresa Sánchez and Gabino Rodríguez making their first appearance in the mother and son roles they have played in four films to date, Where Are Their Stories? also introduces the theme of family which unites the films, here by revealing subtle, ironic parallels between the boy’s rural home and the relatively luxurious Mexico City home where his mother works as a live-in maid. (2007, 73 min, 35mm)
This film is the first part of a double feature, followed by All Things Were Now Overtaken by Silence. Your ticket is good for both films.
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All Things Were Now Overtaken by SilenceOct 23, 2011 3:30pm
Screening RoomPereda’s background in video installation is clearly revealed in this, his most formally radical work: a meticulously staged reading of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz´s classic poem “Primer sueño,” with celebrated Mexican actress and director Jesusa Rodríguez portraying the legendary writer reciting her spellbinding poetry in various strikingly theatrical poses. (2010, digital, 62 min)
This film is the first part of a double feature, preceded by Where Are Their Stories? Your ticket is good for both films.
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Perpetuum MobileOct 27, 2011 7:30pm
Screening RoomAn itinerant mover, working from the streets of Mexico City with his partner, lives with his beleaguered mother amidst a tension created by an absent older brother and unmentioned father. Pereda’s most tightly structured and intricately plotted feature, Perpetuum Mobile fully punctures the drifting rhythm of the mover’s casual pursuit of a career with a series of intense and almost satirically telenovela-esque domestic vignettes. (2010, 86 min, 35mm)
From YBCA Curator Joel Shepard on Tumblr:YBCA's programs are made possible in part by:
Abundance Foundation
Adobe
Koret Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts
Novellus Systems
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