• adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez
  • adrian garcia gomez

LA MESA

masculinity and queer desire in rural Mexico

LA MESA

2018 | HD | Black + White | TRT: 9:45

La Mesa explores the intersections of memory, identity and queer desire. It recreates fragmented and romanticized stories of a childhood in rural Mexico as told by the filmmaker's father. These disjointed vignettes are interwoven with queered reenactments of scenes from popular culture. The filmmaker casts himself in the old Mexican films and American Westerns he grew up watching with his family in California. He appears as the romantic lead opposite the male actors, including Pedro Infante, Mexican national hero and the filmmaker's childhood crush. The animations are laid over footage of the old family home in Mexico which now sits alone, slowly being consumed by the surrounding countryside.

By centering queer desire in his family's history, the filmmaker validates his childhood experiences while challenging popular representations of masculinity as well as traditional notions of power and vulnerability.

APPROPRIATED FILMS

The river scene with Pedro Infante. Appropriated footage from La mujer que yo perdí, 1949

  • Primero soy mexicano, 1950, Directed by Joaquín Pardavé, Mexico
  • La mujer que yo perdí, 1949, Directed by Roberto Rodríguez, Mexico
  • Marcelino pan y vino, 1955, Directed by Ladislao Vadja, Spain
  • Los gavilanes, 1956, Directed by Vicente Oroná, Mexico
  • Bonanza, 1959 – 1973, American Television Series

SELECTED SCREENINGS | EXHIBITIONS

2023 Le western expérimental, La Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
2023 Zinegoak 20 Aniversario - Animación LGTBIQ+ with Instituto Cervantes, various including Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw
2022-2023 Cosmic Rays Touring Festival, various venues

2022 Children of the Moon, Anthology Film Archives, New York, New York
2022 Seoul ALT Cinema Festival, Seoul, South Korea

2021 50th Anniversary Screenings, Collectif Jeune Cinéma, Saint-Ouen, France
2021 4e Weekend du Cinéma Latino-Américain du El Perro Que Ladra, Sélection Queer, Paris, France
2021 Festival Histoires de Cinéma, Cinémathèque de Toulouse, Toulouse, France
2021 Les Jours de Lumière, VIDEOFORMES Program, Saint-Saturnin, France

2020 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival Touring Program, LA Filmforum, Los Angeles, California
2020 Festival of (In)appropriation, York University, Toronto, Canada
2020 Festival of (In)appropriation, North West Film Forum, Seattle, Washington
2020 Festival of (In)appropriation, Metro Cinema, Edmonton, Canada
2020 SQFF Seattle Queer Film Festival, Seattle, Washington

2019 Ann Arbor Film Festival, Ann Arbor, Michigan. WINNER, \aut\ FILM Award for Best LGBTQ Film
2019 Festival of (In)appropriation, LA Filmforum, Los Angeles, California
2019 Milwaukee Underground Film Festival, Milwaukee, Wisconsin Opening Night Program
2019 HCAF Houston Cinema Arts Festival, Houston, Texas
2019 FIVAC Festival Internacional de Videoarte de Camagüey, Camagüey, Cuba
2019 57th Ann Arbor Film Festival Touring Program, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
2019 RPM Festival, Boston, Massachusetts
2019 FLEX FEST The Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, Tampa, Florida
2019 Cosmic Rays Film Festival, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
2019 XPOSED International Queer Film Festival, Berlin,Germany
2019 Festival Oodaaq, Rennes + Saint-Malo, France
2019 Loud & Proud Festival des cultures queer, Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, France
2019 Trazos que forman, Instituto Profesional Arcos, Viña del Mar, Chile
2019 Biannual AJAAS Conference, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon
2019 Three Rivers Film Festival, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2019 VIDEOFORMES Festival International d'Arts Numériques, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2019 ZINEGOAK Festival de Cine y Artes Escénicas Gaylesbitrans, Bilbao, Spain
2019 Rencontres Internationales Traverse Vidéo, Toulouse, France
2019 Malmö International LGBTQ+ Short Film Festival, Malmö, Sweden
2019 QFest, Houston, Texas

2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival, Edinburgh, Scotland
2018 L'Alternativa, Festival de Cinema Independent, Barcelona, Spain
2018 25 FPS Festival, Zagreb, Croatia
2018 Kino-integral: 25FPS v Ljubljani, Slovenian Cinematheque, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2018 Kassel Dokfest, Kassel, Germany
2018 Toronto Queer Film Festival, Toronto, Canada
2018 DOBRA Festival Internacional de Cinema Experimental, Cinemateca do Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
2018 MARFICI Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente de Mar del Plata, Mar del Plata, Argentina
2018 KLEX Kuala Lumpur Experimental Film and Video Festival, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2018 Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, Jihlava, Czech Republic
2018 FIVA Festival Internacional de Videoarte, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2018 The Unseen Festival, Denver, Colorado
2018 Queer City Cinema Film Festival, Regina, Canada
2018 Antimatter [Media Art], Victoria, Canada
2018 Festival Images Contre Nature, Marseille, France
2018 EXPERIMENTAL SUPERSTARS, Novi Sad, Serbia
2018 CINETORO Festival Internacional de Experimentación, Toro, Colombia. WINNER, Best LGBTQ+ Film
2018 Proceso de Error, Festival Internacional de Video Experimental, Valparaíso, Chile
2018 VIDEOMEDEJA International Video Festival, Museum of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia
2018 INTERMEDIACIONES Muestra de Videoarte y Video Experimental, Medellín, Colombia
2018 VIDEOFEST2K18 Bienal Internacional de Video y Cine Contemporaneo, Tijuana, Mexico
2018 RECIFEST Festival de Cinema de Diversidade Sexual e de Gênero, Recife, Brazil
2018 Rio Festival de Gênero & Sexualidade, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2018 AMOR Festival Internacional de Cine LGBT+, Santiago + Valparaíso, Chile

WRITING

"Zinegoak 20 Aniversario - Animación LGTBIQ+" by Pau Guillén (Zinegoak), Instituto Cervantes, July 2023. [ ARTICLE ]
"La Mesa" by Simone Dompeyre, Catalogue: 22emes Rencontres Traverse Vidéo, Toulouse, France, 2018. [ PDF ]
"L'Alternativa: Crónica de la Sección Oficial Cortometrajes" por Silvia García Palacios. Fundido a negro. [ ARTICLE ]
"Film Scratches: Re-Drawing the Table" by David Finklestein. Film International, September 2019 [ ARTICLE ]

DISTRIBUTION

Video Data Bank
Collectif Jeune Cinéma