La Mesa

With the curiously engaging approach of drawing over black and white photographic images, Californian director Adrian Garcia Gomez explores his memories to contextualise his understanding of identity and the past through images from American westerns and Mexican films of the 1940s and '50s. This film shares many of the formal aspects and concerns of its predecessor Mikveh (2016), which Garcia Gomez maintains in his subsequent work while using a much more complex visual composition.

Synopsis: A series of disjointed vignettes drawn over fragmented footage casts the film-maker in American westerns and old Mexican films, exploring the identity and longings of his queer childhood. This short challenges popular representations of men, love and masculinity.