THE DISCIPLE OF SPEED / LA DISCÍPULA DEL VELOCÍMETRO
(Miguel Calderón, Mexico, 2008, 66 min. In Spanish with English subtitles)
U.S. Premiere! / Filmmaker in person
Co-presented by the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York
In this biographical documentary about the 50-year-old Mexican multimillionaire Emma, visual artist Miguel Calderón shows how reality can far surpass fiction in improbability. Basically his film is made up of the video research for a full-length film. The way Emma garnered her fortune remains unclear and unimportant. However, the way in which that money makes it possible for her to go to the limit in her extreme hobbies and activities becomes overwhelmingly clear. The eccentric millionaire, mother of a strange adolescent son, has a black belt in karate, is a stuntwoman and artiste, and claims to have paranormal gifts.
“Calderón follows her during races, film recordings, paragnostic performances, and dinners with friends, but is – rightly – just as interested in the thoughts of the 25 bodyguards and in her son’s gun collection. The woman is entirely convinced of herself and has no trouble linking together different worlds. But Calderón, who wields the camera, increasingly becomes the frustrated protagonist in his own failed project.” –International Rotterdam Film Festival
Miguel Calderón is a contemporary Mexican artist who, while working through the disciplines of painting, video, photography, and sculpture, examines cultural stereotypes through both a critical artistic approach and a personal lens. Exemplified by a flippant attitude and crude aesthetic, his work features an amalgam of both fine art and pop culture references. Born on June 1, 1971 in Mexico City, Mexico, Calderón spent much of his early artistic career studying at academic institutions, attending The Cambridge School of Weston in Massachusetts before receiving his BFA in 1994 from the San Francisco Art Institute. Calderón's paintings have gained notoriety in both the art world as well as in popular culture, notably being featured in Wes Anderson's classic 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums. His work has been exhibited in museums and institutions across the globe, including at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, New York, the Museum of Natural History in Mexico City, and in the São Paulo Biennale in Brazil.
Thursday, August 1, 7:15pm
Anthology Film Archives
32 Second Avenue, New York City
No advance ticket sale: Tickets available the day of the screening only
Presented as part of ‘’If You Can Screen It There: Premiering Contemporary Latin American Cinema,’ programmed by Matías Piñeiro and Carlos A. Gutiérrez.
