STRAIGHT OUTTA MEXICO
Curated by Santiago Esteinou

Los Ladrones Viejos: Las Leyendas del Artegio (The Old Thieves)
Dir. Everardo González, 2007, 97 min.
Ladrones Viejos is the story of a generation of thieves who achieved their greatest victories in the sixties; their distinctive code of ethics, the various categories of delinquents inhabiting the city's streets, their alliances with high ranking police officials that allowed them to operate, the betrayals that followed, and the price they ended up paying.

Spanish with English subtitles

STRAIGHT OUTTA MEXICO
Curated by Santiago Esteinou

DeNADIE (NoONE)
Dir. Tin Dirdamal, 2005, 82 min.
Interviewed in Mexico, immigrants from various Central American countries talk about their reasons for leaving home to undertake the dangerous trip to the United States. These men and women of various ages have chosen to travel through Mexico by train, thus avoiding paying fees to coyotes. In doing so, they face numerous dangers, including encounters with gangs known as maras—organized groups of teenagers and young men who assault, rob, rape, and often kill their victims—and the abuses of Mexican police officers and railroad company employees, who often steal from the stowaways. This well-done documentary offers their testimonies and captures the intensity of their stories. One outstanding sad story is that of Maria, a Honduran mother of four who was forced to go north because of the delicate economy that followed Hurricane Mitch. In a dramatic scene, the film crew visits Maria's family in Honduras, where the children are still crying because their mother is absent.

Spanish with English subtitles

STRAIGHT OUTTA MEXICO
Curated by Santiago Esteinou

Al Otro Lado (To The Other Side)
Dir. Natalia Almada, 2005, 70 min.
An aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico faces two choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. From Sinaloa, Mexico to the streets of South Central and East L.A., Al Otro Lado explores the world of drug smuggling, illegal immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all.
Spanish with English subtitles

En El Hoyo (In the Pit)
Dir. Juan Carlos Rulfo, 2006, 84 min.
A Mexican legend recounted that for every bridge built the devil would ask for one soul, so that the bridge never falls. This film tells the story of the workers who are participating in the construction of a second deck to Mexico's City inner Periférico freeway. This second deck is about to transform the city, its landscape and the lives of its inhabitants. It is the story of those whose hands and sweat go into the making of this mammoth work of concrete, steel and asphalt. The workers' daily lives, their hopes, their emotions and small moments that will culminate in the loss of a soul taken by the devil, a soul that will remain as a memory of the workers who build the second deck.
Spanish with English subtitles

STRAIGHT OUTTA MEXICO
Curated by Santiago Esteinou

Los Niños Devoran Lobos (Kids Devour Wolves)
Dir. Antonino Isordia, 2007, 90 min.
Four young guys from four powerful gangs from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and the U.S. tell the story of their lives as if they were telling a single story. These are lives involved in violence, sacrifice, adventure, danger and death. Some of them will try to save themselves, and create a new start. Others try to get in. But is not always possible, because the streets rules can't be broken and once they lived them, they can't get out.
Spanish with English subtitles