Dulce convivencia
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Despite the title, which reflects the wider audience that the filmmaker hopes to affect and educate, Dulce convivencia is in Mixe, the language of director-cinematographer Filoteo Gómez Martínez’s indigenous rural village, San Miguel Quetzaltepec in Oaxaca, Mexico, to which he has returned with camera in hand to document the process by which panela is made (it is used in beverages and desserts), beginning with the planting of sugar cane. Gómez has dedicated his film to those whom we see: parents, relatives, neighbors, all of whom he lists and—the word should take on deeper meaning here—credits. Although most of the film unobtrusively observes, someone along the way notes, “In our village we learn by helping.” They share the work and respect one another. Young Gómez—at the beginning of his film he faces us—makes documentaries that show indigenous peoples in their normal lives. Here, he gives two aims for his film: to show not only the panela that is being made, but also the villagers’ reactions to the camera. The kid is being sly and wry; there is no reaction, only total acceptance and appreciation—a reciprocation of his attitude and spirit. (Grunes, Dennis. Review of Dulce convivencia. Grunes Word Press blog, 21 April 2009, grunes.wordpress.com/2009/04/21/dulce-convivencia-filoteo-gomez-martinez-2004)