Cine+Más Rocks the Roxie with 'Hecho en Mexico'

Now in its second iteration, Hecho en Mexico brings six nonfiction highlights to San Francisco after a banner year for Mexican cinema. Screening June 14–17, the collaboration between Cine+Más and RoxCine offers a rare opportunity to see award-winning documentaries on the big screen and meet their creators.

In his debut feature Mamacita, director José Pablo Estrada Torrescano completes his promise to his 95-year-old grandmother Maria del Carmen Torrescano: a film about her life. The documentary, screening June 14 and 17, tells the story of an extravagant former beauty queen behind a lavish cosmetics empire.

Scaling the walls of Mamacita’s self-made palace, Torrescano discovers deep wounds and familial deception, uncovering the truth behind his grandmother’s past. Intimate interviews with family members and archival footage provide the textural backdrop to this gripping portrait of one matriarch’s legacy and the emotional toll of untold truths.

After each seasonal harvest comes Titixe, or the search for what’s left behind. In another loving tribute to family, filmmaker Tania Hernandez Velasco grapples with the loss of her grandfather and his traditional knowledge of working their ancestral plot of land. After her grandfather’s death, Velasco and her mother convince her grandmother to perform one final black bean harvest. Saturated scenes and quiet moments reveal life in the Mexican countryside, tinged with stories of spirits and the turn of the seasons in a country that has all but forgotten its rural origins in exchange for the endless pursuit of advancement.

After the screening on June 16, audiences have an opportunity to speak with the filmmaker’s mother, Yolanda Velasco, one of the subjects and collaborators of the documentary.

Hecho en Mexico is presented by RoxCine with support from Cine+Más San Francisco Latino Film Festival, PODER SF and the General Consulate of Mexico in San Francisco. More information on the screenings and Q&As can be found here.