Feb 7
International Film Forum: Ways of Being Home
Ways of Being Home (Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo, 2020, USA/Mexico, 72 min.) - Northfield premiere, Screening and Panel Discussion with film director and crew:
- Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo, documentary filmmaker, artist, and lecturer in Cinema and Media Studies
- George Zuccolotto, musician, photographer, and Northfield City Council member
- Fernando Saldivia Yáñez, CAMS graduate ’20, filmmaker, and graduate student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
- Ashley Marcial, Mathematics and Studio Art major at St. Olaf and film participant
- Seth Peabody, Assistant Professor of German (moderator)
This intimate cinematic portrait of two small towns - one in Mexico and one in Minnesota - is an evocative audiovisual meditation on the experience of Mexican immigrants living and working in rural America. Vivid cinematography, richly layered soundscapes, short animated sequences, and a constellation of testimonies introduce audiences to Maltrata, an agricultural town nestled in the mountains of Veracruz, Mexico, and to Northfield, a college town in southern Minnesota where many Maltratans have immigrated and settled. By means of a nonlinear narrative and a camera that thoughtfully yet viscerally meanders between everyday scenes in both towns, Chilean-American director Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo shows the complexities of, and contrasts between, these places. Filmed amidst increasing violence and political unrest in Mexico and the rising anti-immigrant sentiment that took hold during and after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, the voices of fiercely determined and hard-working women coalesce to offer a nuanced portrait of a transnational community. Ultimately, the film is a testament to the resiliency and ingenuity of uprooted people as they craft a life and a home fostered by ritual, relationship, and community rather than solely by geography. (Women Make Movies)
This project is supported by Project Pericles and the Mellon Periclean Faculty Leadership (PFL) Program in the Humanities, funded by the Mellon Foundation and The Eugene M. Lang Foundation
