“He has been called a Mexican Mussolini, an Indian von Hindenburg, a Latin American Lenin,” said a 1932 New York Times article about General Plutarco Elias Calles, president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928 and the subject of EL GENERAL, winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s US Directing Award for documentary, and broadcasting on P.O.V. as part of the 2010 season.
This stunning and epic film is Almada’s way to document her journey to reconcile the contradictions between her family’s memories and the country’s collective memory. Using archival and original footage, Hollywood films and still photographs, as well as interviews with modern working class street vendors, Almada searches to understand the scope of her own extraordinary connection to Mexico’s history and creates a deeply compassionate portrait of the Mexican people and the forces that have shaped their country.
Click here to watch the trailer.
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