While Ambulante 2014 kicked off yesterday in downtown Mexico City with a public screening of The Square, today (1/31) is the first real day of activities. More than thirty Mexico City venues are ready to offer documentaries from this Friday until February 13, and after that Ambulante moves to eleven other states of the country (Guerrero, Zacatecas, Puebla, Veracruz, Nuevo León, Coahuila, Michoacán, Chiapas, Jalisco, Baja California, and Oaxaca). Personally, I really like this documentary festival and this year's lineup is again quite promising. I'm really excited to see many films already acclaimed by my ScreenAnarchy colleagues and the list with 10 recommendations displayed in the gallery below is mostly composed from that feeling. Read on...
Twitch's Picks for Ambulante 2014
After Tiller
This one looks rough: “After Tiller is a tremendously important, vital documentation of the current state of late-term abortion in the US.”
Blackfish
One of the most talked 2013 documentaries finally comes to Mexico. It is an important reflection on animal captivity.
Read Twitch’s review by Alex Koehne.
Muscle Shoals
Twitch’s Jason Gorber thinks this is “a must-see for even the most casual of music fans.” Read his full review here.
Narco Cultura
Should be a must for every Mexican.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
Curiously, I have seen already Maxin Pozdorovkin’s brand new documentary (The Notorious Mr. Bout) but I missed the Pussy Riot doc last year, when it screened in Mexico City as part of the DOCSDF festival. As far as I’m concerned, Ambulante 2014 is offering just the second chance to watch it here on the big screen.
Josh Hurtado reviewed it for Twitch and said, “A Punk Prayer documents what might prove to be a watershed moment in a movement that could change Russia. Alternatively, it could document a flash in the pan that ends up being little more than shouting into a wall. Only time will tell, but if you want to know the story, this is a great way to catch up.”
The Missing Picture
“The term "documentary" proves to be an inadequate description of this extraordinary work. The Missing Picture is a beautifully rendered first-person account of a true-life nightmare that the filmmaker Rithy Panh managed to escape.” Read more of Christopher Bourne’s ScreenAnarchy review.
The Naked Room (El Cuarto Desnudo)
Seven Mexican feature length documentaries conform Ambulante’s Pulsos section this year. I have seen them all but one and so far The Naked Room is still the best of the bunch. I watched it back in October at the Morelia Film Festival and you can read my full review right here.
The Square
An Oscar-nominated documentary that, according to Jason Gorber, is “a modern masterpiece.” Check out his amazing review!
The Unknown Known
This is Errol Morris’ doc on Donald Rumsfeld. Twitch’s Kurt Halfyard wrote a very thoughtful review.
We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks
Morelia screened both the WikiLeaks fiction (The Fifth State) and this one, the documentary. Somehow I missed both but I’m more eager to watch We Steal Secrets, after all I don’t much about the subject and it seems like the perfect way to rectify this.