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July 20: EL GENERAL Premiere on POV

EL GENERAL, winner of the Sundance Film Festival’s US Directing Award for documentary, will broadcast on P.O.V. as part of the 2010 season. To many Mexicans, General Plutarco Calles was and remains a controversial and conflicted figure, illustrating both the idealism and injustices of the country’s past, remembered for both his deeds as a revolutionary hero and the brutal tactics he employed during his presidency. But to filmmaker Natalia Almada (AL OTRO LADO), he is her great-grandfather, a man whose life she attempts to uncover through the eyes and voice of her grandmother Alicia, who shared her remembrances of the General and her own conflicts between her personal recollections of her father and the portrait painted by history.

This stunning and epic film is Almada’s way of documenting her journey to reconcile the contradictions between her family’s memories and the country’s collective memory. Using archival and original footage, Hollywood films and still photographs, as well as interviews with modern working class street vendors, Almada strives to understand the scope of her own extraordinary connection to Mexico’s history, and creates a deeply compassionate portrait of the Mexican people and the forces that have shaped their country.

EL GENERAL will premiere on POV, Tuesday, July 20 at 10 PM EST. Check local listings for schedules.

Starts	July 20 2010
Ends / Deadline	July 20 2010
Homepage	http://www.pbs.org/pov/elgeneral/
Contact	apeck@wmm.com
Issues	Economic Justice, Labor, Poverty, Family & Society, Gender/Women, Human Rights, Immigration, International, Central America, Politics/Government, Voting/Elections