Director: Natalia Almada
Producer: Natalia Almada
Screenplay: Nicolas Entel
Cinematographer: Chuy Chavez
Editors: Natalia Almada, Daniela Alatorre
Music: John Zorn, Marc Ribot, Shazahd Ismaili

The past and the present collide as filmmaker Natalia Almada brings to life audio recordings she inherited about her great-grandfather Plutarco Elias Calles, a revolutionary general who became president in 1924. In his time, Calles was called “El Bolshevique” and “El Jefe Maximo” (the foremost chief). Today, he is remembered as “el Quema-Curas” (priest –burner) and as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until he was exiled in 1936. Through his daughter’s recordings, El General moves between the memories of a daughter grappling with history’s portrait of her father and the weight of his legacy on the country today. Time is blurred in this complex and visually arresting portrait of a family and country living under the shadows of the past.

 

Pasado y presente se encuentran cuando la cineasta Natalia Almada recupera unas grabaciones sobre su bisabuelo Plutarco Elías Calles, general revolucionario que llegó a la presidencia de México en 1924. A Calles se le llamó “El Bolchevique”, “El Jefe Máximo”, el “Quema-Curas”; se le recuerda como el dictador que gobernó detrás de todos los presidentes sucesores hasta su exilio en 1936. A partir de las grabaciones de Alicia Calles, El General gira entre los recuerdos de una hija que lidia con el retrato histórico de su padre y el peso de su legado sobre el México de hoy. El tiempo se borra en este fascinante y complejo retrato de una familia y un país que viven bajo la sombra del pasado.

Natalia Almada’s directing credits include All Water Has a Perfect Memory, an experimental short film that received international recognition; Al Otro Lado, her award-winning debut feature documentary about immigration, drug trafficking and corrido music; and her most recent film, El General, is a family memoir and portrait of Mexico past and present. Almada’s work has screened at The Sundance Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Whitney Biennial, INPUT, and at The Flaherty Seminar, as well as at several film festivals around the world, universities, conferences and as television broadcasts including PBS, ARTE, and VPRO. Almada is a MacDowell Colony Fellow and a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow.

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