In the last decade of Mexico’s resurgence as an international cinematic power, one of its most fascinating emerging independent filmmakers has been Matías Meyer. Crafting captivating films that evoke unfamiliar geographies and existentially charged engagements with duration and time, the award-winning filmmaker has developed a personal vernacular that speaks compellingly beyond generic convention and the present moment. Educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Mexico’s Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica, and presently working in both Mexico City and Montreal, Meyer typically produces work with international partners, and participates regularly at international festivals (Locarno, Stockholm, Rotterdam). In this milieu, he offers refracted but precise visions, mostly of Mexico, that engage vigorously with global film traditions, eschewing exoticism for cinematic formulations of the ineffable. His four feature films to date display a familiar signature and a compelling thematic center, expressing the vastness of solitude, and the epiphanies and purifications that occur on journeys in search of sanctuary, rapture or release. The Archive is pleased to host Matías Meyer for this first retrospective of his work, also representing Meyer’s first time presenting his work in Los Angeles.

All films directed by Matías Meyer, and in Spanish with English subtitles unless otherwise noted.

Program

Friday June 17

7:30pm:

YO Mexico/ Switzerland/Canada/Dominican Republic/Netherlands 2015
Winner of the jury award for Best Mexican Feature at the 2015 Morelia International Film Festival, Yo presents a young man of indeterminate age and apparent mental incapacity, living with his mother in a seemingly suspended childhood. A chance meeting with a young girl sets in motion a series of encounters that will spur his transformation to adulthood, for better or worse. Infused with an equal sense of dread and wonder, the film equivocally frames the epic human journey of emotional maturation.
DCP, color, 80 min.
SCR: Alexandre Auger, Matías Meyer.
Cast: Raúl Silva Gómez, Elizabeth Mendoza, Isis Vanessa Cortés, Ignacio Rojas Nieto, Minerva Ivonne Morales.

WADLEY Mexico 2008
In filmmaker Matías Meyer’s deceptively simple first feature, a young backpacker trudges into the wilderness, the camera attentively registering incidentals of atmosphere, and behavior, as duration becomes increasingly relative. The mission, to take some peyote, leads to another question: will the adventurer now find his way home? The film’s hypnotic spell is perfectly summed up by the filmmaker: “when you go out and observe, magical things happen.”
35mm, color, 58 min,in Spanish with English subtitles,
SCR: Matias Meyer. Cast: Leonardo Ortizgris 

 Proceeded by:

THE FIELD OF POSSIBLE Mexico/Canada 2014
(Le champ des possibles)
An “impossible day” spent in a silent and unimpressive corner of Montreal ushers in dramatic and spellbinding changes, in this meditative, experimental short.
DCP, color, in Spanish with English subtitles, 10 min.

In person: Matias Meyer

Cost : Screening cost is $10.

Sponsor(s): Latin American Institute, Film and Television Archive, UCLA Film & Television Archive, AMEXCID, Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles and UCLA Latin American Institute