The Mexican family at the center of Hatuey Viveros Lavielle's closely-observed documentary does what they can to get by while living in rural Quetzalan, where rain falls frequently. Tere, who dresses in traditional folkloric outfits, earns money by selling napkin holders. In their spare time, she and her children and grandchildren sort coffee beans, which she later roasts to prepare coffee. Tere's husband, Antonio, died the year before, and the family plans to honor the first anniversary of his death with a feast. Jorge, the oldest son, is preparing to graduate from law school, while teenage daughter Chayo attends high school. When Chayo finds out that she's pregnant, she attempts to work out a financial arrangement with the father's family, and encourages the father to help her raise the child, but he claims that he's too busy with work. At that point, she considers having an abortion, a surprising move from someone living in a town that time seems to have forgotten—instead of a grocery store, the family buys corn and young turkeys from local merchants. By the time Jorge has started to take on clients, the turkeys are fully grown, and the family prepares the feast (Lavielle documents the bloody slaughter of one of the turkeys, which the other birds observe with only the mildest of curiosity). Due to the lack of narration and inter-titles, it takes awhile to sort out various family members, but Lavielle effectively brings their hardscrabble—but hardly hopeless—existence into vivid focus. A fine ethnographic profile, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
Café
(2014) 80 min. DVD: $398. Icarus Films. PPR. Closed captioned. Volume 32, Issue 2
Café
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