Golden and New Ages of Mexican cinema
By Jesús Ibarra

Mexican Film Series
María Candelaria 
Thu, Sep 17, 2pm
Fri, Sep 18, 7pm
Spanish with English subtitles

Nosotros los Pobres 
(We, the Poor)
Fri, Sep 18, 4pm
Spanish with English subtitles 

Voces Inocentes 
(Innocent Voices)
Thu, Sep 17, 7pm
Fri, Sep 18, 1pm
Spanish with English subtitles

Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Reloj 50A
60 pesos

Joining the celebration of Fiestas Patrias, Teatro Santa Ana presents the second part of the Mexican cinema series, with three great films this week, two movies representative of the Golden Age and one of the New Age.

The outburst of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema took place in 1943. The 70 movies filmed that year proved cinema had become a true industry in Mexico. Europe and the US were busy in the war, which had freed Mexican cinema from the European influence and greatly diminished the American one. Mexican directors made their greatest effort that year; one was Emilio “Indio” Fernández. 

In 1943 and 1944, Fernández made four films, Flor Silvestre (Wild Flower), María Candelaria, Bugambilia (Bougainvillea) and Las Abandonadas (The Abandoned Ones). With these four films, and with the help of Gabriel Figueroa’s beautiful photography, he took to legendary levels one of the most charismatic couples in the history of Mexican cinema, Dolores del Río (of recent Hollywood fame) and Pedro Armendáriz. Teatro Santa Ana’s Mexican movie series presents one of his films, María Candelaria, September 17–18. 

María Candelaria is the story of a young flower seller of Xochimilco, who is harassed by the villagers of her community for being the daughter of a prostitute. The film examines both racism against Indians in Mexico and social ostracism in the forties.

Nosotros los Pobres (We, the Poor), directed in 1947 by Ismael Rodríguez, was Pedro Infante’s definitive consolidation as a popular idol.

It depicts the sorrows and difficulties of humble carpenter Pepe el Toro (Infante) and a vision of the people in the poor neighborhoods of Mexico City during the forties. Two glories of the Mexican stage and screen, Carmen Montejo and Katy Jurado (Oscar nominee for Best Supporting Actress in 1954 for The Broken Lance) accompany Infante in this unforgettable film, seen by generations of Mexicans.

Voces Inocentes (Innocent Voices), directed by Luis Mandoki in 2004, is the touching story of Chava, an 11-year-old boy who lives in a small village in the middle of the civil war in El Salvador.

During the eighties, the government army in El Salvador recruited 12-year-old boys, taking them out of schools. Chava has only one year left of innocence, one year before he is also enrolled by the army to fight against rebels. The issue of child recruitment is a central subject in the movie. Director Mandoki said, “Nowadays, more than 300,000 kids are recruited by armies all around the world. This is one of the reasons I had for telling this story.”