CAFÉ: CHANTS OF SMOKE
Director: Hatuey Viveros
Mexico, 2015 / Nahuatl with English subtitles | 80 min
Tuesday, July 30 / 7 PM / The Cinematheque
“A lyrical exploration of ritual and routine, CAFÉ takes us to the heart of Cuetzalan, a village in Puebla’s lush mountain forests, and inside the home of a Nahuatl family. A riveting film invested in what cinema can uniquely uncover. Spoken entirely in Nahuatl, CAFÉ emerges as a vital register of the linguistic diversity of the region. A hybrid approach to both the poetic and the anthropological aligns this piece with a recent turn toward sensory ethnographies. This film confirms Hatuey Viveros’ status as a specialist in the cinema of intimate spaces.”—Paulina Suarez Hesketh, Ambulante
Filmed over the course of a year in the Nahua village of Cuetzalan, Mexico, CAFÉ is a beautifully observed, intimate film. Director and cinematographer Hatuey Viveros Lavielle’s brings a deliberate and poetic sensibility to ritualistic daily moments marking life in the mountain village: sorting and roasting coffee beans, flipping tortillas over an open fire, feeding turkeys that will become a feast marking the first anniversary of Antonio’s death.
Best Film, 2015 Visions du Reel Film Festival
Best Documentary, 2015 Cinema Tropical Awards
Best Documentary, 2015 Montreal First People’s Festival
Official Selection, 2015 Documentary Fortnight at The Museum of Modern Art
This screening is co-presented by:
CoDev links unions and civil society organizations in Canada with like-minded organizations in all regions of Latin America, establishing and sustaining partnerships to build solidarity, promote mutual understanding and create change for a more just and equitable world.
