August 2 - 9, 2011

Silvestre Pantaleon

Tuesday, August 9 - 6:30 pm
Documentary
México |
2010 |
Nahuatl OV
/ English ST
| 65m
Roberto Olivares, Jonathan Amith

Silvestre Pantaleón is the story of an elderly man from the Nahuatl-speaking village of San Agustín Oapan, Mexico. It begins as a local curandero reads the protagonist’s fortune in the cards and diagnoses the costly remedy to his ills: a complex series of offerings to the hearth, the ants, the river, and the deceased. Silvestre Pantaleón then struggles to pull together the money needed to pay for the curing ceremony and provide for his family, dedicating himself to the only remunerative activities he knows: handcrafting rope for religious ceremonies and making seldom-used household objects that he alone still has the skills to produce.