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Picture of documentary film El General
El General, an excerpt

A dubious truism claims that, sooner or later, all filmmakers make a documentary about their grandparents. In El General, Natalia Almada seeks to disentangle some of the complex mythologies of her native Mexico via that country’s last “caudillo,” President Plutarco Elias Calle (nicknamed “El General” of the film’s title). Calle was President of Mexico from 1924 to 1928. He was also Almada’s great-grandfather.

Almada constructs her film using various elements, layers that double-up on themselves endlessly. In this month’s selected 90 seconds, the first membrane consists of audio recordings in Spanish of her grandmother Alicia Calle recounting life as the daughter of El General. The filmmaker’s voiceover in English, meanwhile, speculates as to what the older woman’s silences and hesitations might suggest. Visually, we get the interplay of official “history” via archival news footage depicting El General, contrasted with family photos and home movies also representing him. Wanting to leave a parallel account of her father—not simply as the despot politician remembered today, but also as a kind, methodical man—Alicia Calle set about to record her family memories in these audio interviews. She passed away before she was able to make her recollections public. Almada, in turn, has made a beautiful film that finds meaning precisely in the gaps. 

En español:

El General es el documental más reciente de la cineasta Mexicana Natalia Almada. Experimental en estructura y estilo, la película reconstruye el árbol genealógico de la directora y conecta sus ramas a la historia de Mexico. Resulta que Plutarco Elías Calle, quien fue Presidente de ese país desde 1924 hasta 1928, es su bisabuelo.

Apodado “El General” (y mencionado en el título de la pelicula), Calle es recordado por ser el último “Caudillo” de Mexico. Es un detalle del pasado que la narración autobiográfica—una mezcla de la voz de Alicia Calle, abuela de Almada e hija del Presidente, captada a través de cinta de audio y entrelazada con la reflexión de la propia Almada—trata de exhumar y en cierta manera, corregir. Son precisamente esos momentos a los cuales solamente la cineasta tiene acceso, los que hacen de este complejo retrato una cinta imprescindible.

~ Felix Endara

Clip courtesy of Women Make Movies.
View upcoming screenings of El General at MoMA.

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Liked the film immensely, the gap tells a lot and that shot of his walking alone on the beach in silence a lot unsaid in words. I would like to know more about the film maker and history of the period.

Posted on Apr 30, 2010 by Amit Sen