Tulane University

As part of the 2015 Patois Film Festival The New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival, Sarah Borealis, a Tulane alum who received her Ph.D. in Latin American History at Tulane, is curating a group of shorts about “Recognizing Indigenous Rituals in Modern Mexico.” The films will be presented on March 21, 2015 at 5 PM at the Indywood Cinema. Of the five shorts, three are co-directed by Borealis. The films include:

• Jeuh kieh a jm hm kahun (The Path of Stone Soup)
  Directed by Sarah Borealis and Neyda Paredes (2013)
  The teaser for the film, which Borealis directed in Oaxaca in 2010, is the recipient of the Katherine Bliss and William French award for Gender Awareness in Mexican History. To learn more about the making of the film, read this National Geographic story. The Path of Stone Soup is a documentary that will entice you with the sights and sounds of an ancient tradition. Stone Soup originates in the river system surrounding the Mexican village of San Felipe Usila, located in the state of Oaxaca. This “docu-legend” tells the story of a pre-Hispanic recipe that lives on thanks to the value it holds for the Gachupin Velasco family, who have fought to preserve it, reinvent it and share it as a means of honoring and savoring their most cherished ritual.

• Telares Sonoros (The Singing Loom)
  Directed by Mariana Rivera, Josué Vergara (2014)
  This documentary is a sonic construction composed from the unique sounds of weaving on a back strap loom, and features Amuzgo women from the Mexican state of Guerrero.

• A je maa jau yhein Kieh jeuh (Red Huipil from Usila)
  Directed by Arturo Juarez Aguilar, Sarah Borealis (2013)
  A je maa jau yhein Kieh jeuh (Red Huipil from Usila) weaves a multi-sensory journey through the worldview of Elisema Gachupin, a young fashion designer from Oaxaca. Elisema guides us via threads artfully woven in her indigenous language, Usila Chinantec.

• Nos Pintamos Solas (We Paint Ourselves)
  Directed by Marisa Belausteguigoitia and Mariana Rivera (2014)
  This is the story of an uprising of both vocal and visual. It is the story of how a group of imprisoned women take charge of the walls by which they are confined and define their voices in the process. In four acts, the women climb scaffolding to tell their stories through themed murals that represent their collective outcry against injustice and neglect.

• El Día Primero (The First of the Month)
  Directed by Sarah Borealis and Neyda Paredes (2013)
  The peoples of Mexico have a complex relationship with death. In Mesoamerican mythology, life and death are complementary parts of the human experience. In modern Mexico, popular devotion to Santa Muerte (Holy Death) is growing every day. This documentary features several devotees as they prepare for their monthly pilgrimage to the first public Santa Muerte altar in the notorious Mexico City neighborhood of Tepito. In the words of one believer, “On the first of the month, the barrio of Tepito changes completely.”

The Patois Film Festival has numerous sponsors including the Stone Center for Latin American Studies.

Tickets are required. To find out more about purchasing tickets please visit the Patois Film Festival website.