Alonso Ruizpalacios: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is thrilled to welcome critically-acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alonso Ruizpalacios in-person for a comprehensive retrospective including his newest film, LA COCINA. His work consistently places extremely personal, human stories against the historical, or contemporary backdrops of very specific times, places and institutions, highlighting the existential discrepancies that arise in the wake of the systemic injustices that cast shadows over such settings.

For Ruizpalacios’ first two features, he approaches periods of Mexico’s tumultuous past with great fervor and much heart. In GÜEROS, an outsider’s odyssey is led by a young boy who has been sent to live with his older brother during the student protests of 1999, and follows the young boy as he navigates the streets of Mexico City in search of folk-rocker Epigmenio Cruz, delicately shedding light on the country’s shared angst and frustration at the time. Ruizpalacios opts to travel further back in time for his sophomore feature entitled MUSEO, a heist film based on historical events in 1985 where two thieves break into a museum and steal priceless Mayan, Mixtec, and Zapotec artifacts, illustrating the threat contemporary struggles have on preserving Mexico’s ancient history and cultures.

With his latter two films, the filmmaker returns to the present day, placing his protagonists in a modern world; one that has survived a dark past, though has come out the other side breeding new struggles individuals must face. A COP MOVIE illustrates the day-to-day happenings of police officers who must navigate the corruption of the system they serve, while Ruizpalacios’ newest film, LA COCINA manages to move global, marking the filmmaker’s shift towards focusing on the struggles of the diaspora. Set in present-day New York City, the film embraces its cultural melting-pot of an environment, detailing the everyday joys and pains of the immigrants who cross paths in the restaurant they work, centering around Pedro, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who must grapple with the inconsistencies of the ever-elusive “American Dream.”