Malintzin 17 (Dir: Eugenio Polgovsky and Mara Polgovsky, 2022)
When:
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Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
Malintzin 17
Dir: Eugenio Polgovsky and Mara Polgovsky. Mexico, 2022. 64 min
With introduction by Mara Polgovsky
Synopsis:
For seven days and nights filmmaker Eugenio Polgovsky and his five-year-old daughter, Milena, contemplate a nurturing dove nesting her chick on a hazardous entanglement of electric cables situated right outside their balcony. As the camera captures the trio’s intersecting lives over several days and nights, the loving intimacy between father and daughter prompts conversations about the relationship between humans and nature and the very meaning of filmmaking. Polgovsky’s sister, Mara, found this material after Eugenio died suddenly, aged 40, and carefully edited it into a film that is both his and hers. Malintzin 17 is a minimalist, visually alluring ecological plea that ponders how nature is forced to adapt to an ever expanding human infrastructure.
Mara Polgovsky (Mexico, 1983) is a director, scriptwriter and editor of documentary films.
She is also an art historian, cultural theorist and curator of Latin American art, and has taught at the University of Cambridge and Birkbeck, University of London. Polgovsky studied script writing and worked as editor and director’s assistant on all of Eugenio Polgovsky’s films. As Eugenio’s sister and closest collaborator, she has taken over at Tecolote Films to distribute his work and complete his unfinished projects.
Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico City 1977- London 2017) was a director, editor and cinematographer. His four internationally acclaimed documentaries, Tropic of Cancer (2004), The Inheritors (2008), Mitote (2012), and Resurrection (2016), screened at the Cannes Critics’ Week, Sundance Film Festival, Venice Film Festival, Berlinale, and International Film Festival Rotterdam, among other festivals. In 2010, Eugenio was the Flaherty Seminar’s featured filmmaker and in 2015, he became a filmmaker in residence at Trinity College, Cambridge. In 2007, Polgovsky launched the production company Tecolote Films.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington