Disappearance in Three Acts: Act One

Act One | Act of Mourning is an ethnography of violence and conflict in rural Central Mexico. It appropriates visual motifs from 18th century European Romantic landscape painting tradition, with its depiction of the uncontrollable power of nature and cataclysmic extremes, echoing violent occupation of rural land in Mexico by criminal groups and local guerrillas. The film posits a decolonial approach to the visual representation of violence in Mexico, transporting us beyond the realm of suffering into a space for quiet contemplation as the violent terrain of occupation enters the frame.

Act One | Act of Mourning is the first chapter of the trilogy.