A Trip to Tetlapayac

A Trip to Tetlapayac

2022 · 55 min · Documentary

World-famous and already notorious Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein spent 1931 in Mexico, after the rejection of his projects in Hollywood. But the epic film he planned and largely shot would never be completed. In 2012, film historian Ian Christie visited the hacienda where Eisenstein spent much of his time in Mexico, to ask what really went on there, and discover what’s happened since. This essay film, made in partnership with Japanese filmmaker Chiemi Shimada, looks beyond the apparent failure, to ask what contemporary audiences – and Eisenstein himself – could still learn from Que Viva Mexico!

Directed by Chiemi Shimada

Your Rating

More from Chiemi ShimadaSee all →

mmmmmm · 2023
mmm
★ 1.52023
MovieDocumentary
mmm is an eclectic collection of the clouds captured in Japanese cinema from the 1920s to the present. Drawing inspiration from the 35mm film materials of Japanese physicist and cloud expert Masanao Abe (1891–1966) and scientist Tapio Schneider’s apprehension of a future with cloudless skies, mmm looks at formlessness as an essential actor in the history of cinema.
At AltitudeAt Altitude · 2019
At Altitude
2019
MovieDocumentary
Made as a pilot film of Chiyo, At Altitude is a self-reflexive film of a filmmaker’s brief visit to her grandmother in the Japanese suburbs. Not having seen her grandmother for a while, as the filmmaker has been living abroad for the past 5 years, she uses a 16mm film camera as a mediation tool to reconnect with her grandmother. Interweaving the juxtaposition of inside and outside spaces, the film offers an intimate look at family life and ageing.
Colwood GardensColwood Gardens · 2021
Colwood Gardens
2021
Movie
An intimate, filmic love letter to the filmmaker’s quasi-grandmother.
FragmentsFragments · 2017
Fragments
2017
Movie
Inspired by Frances Glessner Lee’s Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death - a series of dioramas created to improve crime scene investigation, Fragments explores the act of observation through a 40s crime scene diorama.
ChiyoChiyo · 2019
Chiyo
2019
MovieDocumentary
Chiyo is a poetic exploration of the suburbs in Japan through the filmmaker’s reflection on the life of her grandmother. With a series of everyday moments in Yashio from a summer fair to Buddhist rituals, the film embodies micro-narratives, seeking cinema’s ability to offer a contemplative space.
The Case Against SpaceThe Case Against Space · 2026
The Case Against Space
2026
MovieDocumentary
Shortly before Christmas 1973, the crew of Skylab, NASA’s first space station, went on strike.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter