To order this video email Clarke Mackey at mackeyc@post.queensu.ca
Disrobing the Emperor: The New Commons in Mexico
with Gustavo Esteva
Documentary Video, 1 hour, 2000
producer/director: Clarke Mackey, editor: Peter Cassidy, music: Greg Runions
in English, some Spanish with subtitles
Gustavo Esteva gave up a good job with the Mexican government twenty years ago to become a spokesperson for the poorest of Mexico's poor. In this new video he shows us three very different marginal communities that have build a "new commons," by rejecting conventional notions of development and globalization. A rural native village and two barrios in downtown Mexico City have slowly learned to combine the best parts of their traditions with selected aspects of modernity to produce a resilient local culture that challenges the most sacred principles of modern corporatism.
"Unlike many academics of good will (and a few of not such good will) Clarke Mackey does not set out to teach Mexicans who or what they are. He does not set out to "conquer" a problem of underdevelopment. He does what so few have done: he gives Mexicans (upper-class, middle-class, lower-class, and particularly the unclassified) an audience and he helps us watch and listen, helps us learn, helps us see our own "under"development.
"This film belongs to what I would call a central frontier. It gives voice to Mexico City's downtown Tepito and its outlying Santo Domingo de los Reyes; it gives voice to a renegade IBM executive and to a revolutionary leader, it moves from problems of sewage to problems of artistic expression. The simple, quality of some of its footage reminds me of the music one hears played by simple country bands in the streets of Mexico City. Often mistakes are made, often the tune is played off key. How delightfully, refreshingly human with all of our off key and out of tune imperfections!! Is this Postmodern? How academic!! Let me offer a Mexican answer: Sí y no y todo lo contrario.
"Clarke Mackey is to be congratulated for an excellent production. It does not make that common error Gabriel Garcia Marquez described as sizing up Latin America in accordance with our measuring stick. But now it is time to stop speaking and time to start watching, to start listening."
- Daniel Chamberlain, Head of the Department of Spanish and Italian, QueenŐs University