2009 Official Selections

A complete list of 2009 Official Selections for the Mexico International Film Festival can be found here.

2009 Film Schedule

The Human Experience
(Documentary, 90 Minutes, USA)
The story of a band of brothers who travel the world in search of the answers to the burning questions: Who am I? Who is Man? Why do we search for meaning? Their journey brings them into the middle of the lives of the homeless on the streets of New York City, the orphans and disabled children of Peru, and the abandoned lepers in the forests of Ghana, Africa. What the young men discover changes them forever. The brothers are awakened to the beauty of the human person and the resilience of the human spirit.

Calavera Highway
(Documentary, 83 Minutes, USA )
When Armando and Carlos Pena set off to carry their mother’s ashes back to the Texas borderlands and reunite their far-flung brothers, the road reveals more than they bargained for. As it moves towards its surprising ending, “Calavera Highway” traces the odyssey of two brothers who uncover a complex story. Why their mother was an outcast, and what happened to their father who disappeared during “Operation Wetback,” the 1954 U.S. government program that deported over a million Mexican and Mexican Americans. “Calavera Highway” is a sweeping story of seven brothers grappling with the meaning of masculinity and fatherhood, and the nature of family ties.

Pants on Fire
(Feature, 93 Minutes, USA)
Brad is a lousy actor with a nonexistent career. But he tells his friends back in Nebraska that he is poised on the brink of fame. When his buddies surprise him with a visit, Brad scrambles to prop up the illusion. He scores a house-sitting gig for a wealthy couple in the Hollywood Hills, and for a while he manages to fool his friends, and even woo a beautiful woman who paints trash cans for a living. But, inevitably, his lies begin to unravel, threatening everything he cares about.

Short Film Block 1
Siren
(11 Minutes, Hungary)
A story about a young Hungarian boy and his fatal acquaintance with a Russian soldier during the 1956 Revolution in Budapest, which leads to an unusual trip down memory lane.


Welgunzer
(14 Minutes, USA)
Donald was going to build a time machine. He was going to travel into the future... and murder himself.



Under Grinkgo Trees
(14 Minutes, Japan )
A moving portrayal of an elderly man’s journey to reconnect with his past in an attempt to make sense of his life. Grieving from the recent loss of his wife, he returns to his former University in search of a time capsule.

Kwame
(24 Minutes, USA)
A reclusive and emotionally tortured man learns to come to terms with his traumatic past and the feelings of guilt he has over his father’s death as he finds compassion for a troubled young woman struggling with her own demons.

Power Lunch
(8 Minutes, Canada)
While a Mariachi band plays a plaintive melody, two grey-suited men, one Canadian, the other American, talk big business over enchiladas and margaritas in a sweltering hot Mexican restaurant. When it comes time to pay the bill, they bicker over who'll pick up the tab. Neither backs down...

Crude
(Documentary, 104 Minutes, USA)
The inside story of the “Amazon Chernobyl” case in the rainforest of Ecuador, the largest oil-related environmental lawsuit in the world. With extraordinary access to the key players involved, filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother’s Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) and his crew captured all sides of a controversial, epic drama as it unfolded inside and outside the courtroom.

Short Film Block 2
Ripple
(18 Minutes, UK)
A black comedy. One small random act of malice forces an ordinary man off the safe road and on to a dark journey that he'll never forget.


Animated American
(15 Minutes, USA)
The future is about to collide with the past. Eric, a digital loving executive on a mansion hunting expedition finds himself crossing swords with his realtor, Max, an out of work toon rabbit.


Bella Ciudad
(3 Minutes, USA)
A musical video journey through the latino communities of Los Angeles.


      
7 Dias
(10 Minutes, Spain)
Roman gets locked in a theater with Beatriz, a perfect stranger. They spend the whole night together and they fall in love. In just seven days, they have found what they were looking for their entire life.

Magritte Moment
(17 Minutes, USA)
A frustrated painter searching for his muse gets some help from the surreal visions of Rene Magritte.



Split
(15 Minutes)
 A track running couple try to keep equal footing on their withering relationship.




Traces of the trade: A Story of the Deep North
(Documentary, 86 Minutes, USA)
Filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers her New England ancestors were the largest slave traders in US history. Traces of the Trade follows Browne and nine fellow DeWolf descendants as they travel from Rhode Island, to Ghana and Cuba on a trip that brings them face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England's hidden enterprise.

3 Saisons
(Feature, 100 Minutes, Canada)
Five destinies converge, not only in blood and suffering, but also in hope, love and rebirth. Two couples share one commonality: an unexpected pregnancy. Carmine and Sasha live in a  comfortable world where the arrival of a child should be a time filled with joy. Instead, it blows their house of cards to the ground.