Disappearance in Three Acts | Act One

Act One | Act of Mourning is an ethnography of violence reflecting on a history of conflict in Central Mexico. The film appropriates visual motifs from 18th century European Romantic landscape tradition with its depiction of the uncontrollable power of nature and cataclysmic extremes, echoing violent occupation of land in rural Mexico. 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. Through a poignant testimony of a kidnapping survivor, intertwined with the pastoral rural landscapes of her captivity, the film documents geographies of disappearance at the threshold of detectability.

Artist Statement

Disappearance in Three Acts is a trilogy that investigates political and social complexities in contemporary Mexico, such as histories of exclusion, enforced disappearance, state-sponsored violence, and colonialism. Each chapter of the trilogy manifests a political and aesthetic exploration of trauma and marginalized histories, inaugurating a renewed relationship between artistic practices, documentary and memory. By assembling evidence from a variety of sources, such as observant participation, ethnography, home movies, and archival footage, the trilogy attempts to make visible the unspeakable and the inaccessible. This trilogy is the culmination of a decade-long artistic inquiry into diverse forms of documentation and investigation, situating the making and the archiving as a way of repositioning one’s being in the world.

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

Credits

Disappearance in Three Acts | Act One
Color, Stereo
HD
15 mins.
2024

Directed by Victor Arroyo

Sound Design and Score by Christian Olsen
Sound Post-production by Christian Olsen
Post-production by PRIM
Productions Réalisations Indépendantes de Montréal

Preview 1 min.