A lucid and playful filmic approach to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec: Muxes: authentic, fearless, seekers of danger (Alejandra Islas, 2005)

Abstract

Through an interview and film analysis, this paper addresses the career and experience of documentalist and screenwriter Alejandra Islas Caro, specifically the production and making of the doumentary Muxe’s: auténticas, intrépidas, buscadoras del peligro (Muche’s: authentic, intrepid and danger seekers), shot in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in 2005, a place of long matriarchal tradition and at the same time considered a “paradise” for homosexuals and transvestites belonging to Zapotec indigenous culture. Earlier, this theme had been explored in other documentaries such as La vela de las intrépidas busca doras del peligro, (MariCarmen de Lara, 1986), Blossoms of fire (Ramo de fuego, Maureen Goslin y Ellen Osborne, 2000) y Juchitán de las locas (Patricio Henríquez, 2002), essential reference works in order to analyse the meaning of Islas Caro’s film.