Mangos: A Mexican Romance
a feature documentary in development
I went to a small village in Sinaloa, Mexico accompanied by my friend Fernanda to make a movie about teenagers working at a mango factory. To be able to make a more intimate film we both got jobs cutting fruit. I had set out to portray young workers as they navigate their present under the shadow of their impending adulthoods, but it wasn’t so simple. I wanted answers in my search for the meaning of everything, but the teenagers we found were glued to their phones and I was glued to Fernanda, who was herself becoming a character in my film. Oh, and an apocalyptic flood was coming that was going to reset civilization. There was nothing to be done but to keep on dancing.
Alien
documentary short, 10 min, 2018
An immigrant's return back across the border, and the impossibility of finding home.
direction, camera by Ben Guez
cast: Saday Cordoba, Chapito Barnett
origional music by Mateo Lugo
assistant: Omar Navarette
The Memory of Turtles
documentary short, 16 min, 2016
An ailing repairman in northern Mexico leaves his cluttered workshop in the city to return to a desert coast deep within his memory.
directed by Ben Guez
camera: Tim Hussin, Frazier Phillips
origional music by Mateo Lugo
assistant: Omar Navarette