Ouroboros

Ouroboros

2018

Ouroboros is a symbol that is represented with an animal (generally of form or proximity to a serpent) that engulfs its own tail. It symbolizes the eternal effort, eternal struggle or useless effort; the cyclical nature of things. The eternal return that begins again despite the actions to prevent it.

From Nietzsche’s texts about the Eternal Return (present in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and especially in the essay The Gay Science) the film project reflects on the History and the injustices that were on the events that took place in Mexico (October 1968). These events keep repeating and manifesting themselves in one way or another. History marks us and points out events with a distance as an unrepeatable past and that has no relation to our present. It is from a philosophical point of view that we reflect on what this means. There is an allegory to the Mexican subway because it was part of the Mexican progress at that time as a symbol (even though its planning and construction began much earlier); the Mexican subway was inaugurated in 1969.

The film uses audios from a news interview to the Mexico City Mayor (1968) and Enrique Peña Nieto (President from 2012 to 2018) with a message about the Ayotzinapa case (2014). There are also manipulation audios from de candidates for the Presidency in Mexico (2018)

Year: 2018

Digital HD 16:9. 16 mm intervened film and personal archive

Black and white.

Duration 8:53 min

Project realized with the support of the Ingmar Bergman Chair for Cinema and Theater (UNAM), The Film Library (UNAM); National Cinematheque, Goethe Intitute Mexiko, DOCS MX, and Ambulante Festival.

 

Screenings:

2022 Festival of (In)appropriation 12. Premiere at Los Angeles Filmforum on October 2 and at The UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) on October 19th. Guest Curators: Marie-Pierre Burquier, Allyson Unzicker, and Micki Davis

2021 TV UNAM. Broadcast screening. April 12. México

2021 Cinema NUBO Festival. Special mention. April. Aguascalientes, México

2021 FESCISA San Antonio independent Film Festival 2021 Online screening. March 20 -23. Quito Ecuador

2020 KARAMA Human Rights Film Festival. 11th edition. Main program. December 10-17. Amman, Jordan

2020 X Festival Iberoamericano de cortometrajes ABC. FIBABC. October – December. Spain

2020 Das 12 Lateinamerikanische FilmFestival. Pantalla Latina. Shorts selection 1. November 27 – 29. Palace St Gallen. Zwinglistrasse 3, Blumenbergplatz 9000 St. Gallen. Switzerland

2020 Los Angeles Film Forum. Disarm the Right to Violence!: Recent Mexican Experimental Short Films. November 8 Online exhibition. Programers Madison Brookshire and Jesse Lerner

2020 7th Corriente: Encuentro Latinoamericano de Cine de No Ficción. Sección Miradas en crisis. November 12-26. Online exhibition. Arequipa, Perú

2020 1st Bizarrya Short Film Festival. October 1-10. Online exhibition; experimental section. Porto, Portugal

2020 5th Cuzco Underground Cinema Festival. Finalist. October 1-4. Online exhibition. Cuzco, Perú

2020 Bogotá Experimental Film Festival, official selection. Images Manifest Panorama. «Here» section. August and september

2020 Experimental Film Festival, official selection. July

2020 Hope First. Festival Universal de Cortometrajes as an audiovisual link from The Festival El Grito de los sin Voz; initiative in defense of Human Rights. Online edition. Spain. July

2020 The Americas Film Festival New York. The 7th Festival edition is online in collaboration with the Instituto Cervantes NY and the National Museum of the American Indian. USA. June 25-29

2020 Los Angeles Film Forum. Spielberg Theatre at the Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles CA. USA. March 15. Curated by Travis Wilkerson

2020 Inattendus Film Festival. Lyon, France. February 14 – 22

2020 Revolutions per Minute Festival. University of Massachusetts. Boston, MA. USA. January 31 – February 2

2019 Prisma Rome Independent Film Awards. Official Selection. Rome, Italy.

2019 Oaxaca Film Fest. Sección Nueva Industria, Proyectos Desarrollados. Oaxaca, México. October 4-10

2019 Film Fest Zell. Zell am See, Austria. October 3-6

2019 DOBRA Festival Int’l de Cinema Experimental. MAM Rio. Río de Janeiro, Brasil. September 28

2019 Proceso de Error. Festival Internacional de Video Experimental. Valparaíso, Chile. October 1

2019 Muestra de Cine Experimental, Cine Tonalá Tijuana. Tijuana, México. September 12

2019 III Muestra de Cortometrajes Nayarit. Nayarit México. September 10

2019 MUTA Festival Internacional de Apropiación Audiovisual. Lima, Perú. August 21 – 24

2019 San Diego Underground Film Festival. San Diego, United States. August 22 – 25

2019 V Jornadas de Investigación en Artes de la Universidad de Costa Rica en San José, Costa Rica, June

2019 VIDEO EX Experimental Film & Video Festival. Zurich, Switzerland. May 25 – 2 June

2019 Cámara Lúcida – Encuentros Cinematográficos. Cuenca, Ecuador, mayo.

2019 II Muestra de Cine Mexicano Contemporáneo. Barcelona, Spain. May 12

2019 FINI Festival Internacional de la Imagen Finalist in the Professional Documentary section. Pachuca, Hidalgo. Mexico. May 2-10

2019 De l’autre côté: cinéma expérimental mexicain. Exhibición del cortometraje Uróboros. Programación de Daniel Valdéz Puertos. March 19

2018 ULTRAcinema MX. INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL & FOUND FOOTAGE CINEMA. Xalapa, Veracruz. Mexico. November 22-25

2018 ARCADIA: INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION OF RESCUED AND RESTORED CINEMA. UNAM Film Archive. Mexico City. Mexico. September 25