Ramo de fuego
USA / Mexico,
2000, 72 min
Shown in 2000
CREDITS
- dir
-
Maureen Gosling, Ellen Osborne
- prod
-
Maureen Gosling, Ellen Osborne
- cam
-
Xavier Pérez Grobet
- editor
-
Maureen Gosling
- source
-
Intrépidas Productions, 6540 Dana St., Oakland, CA 94609. FAX: 510-845-4136
- premiere
-
World Premiere
-
COMMENTS
Maureen Gosling, Ellen Osborne in person.
OTHER
Poet Elena Poniatowski described the legendary women of Juchitán, a city in Oaxaca, Mexico, as “guardians of men, distributors of food.” Artists like Miguel Covarrubias and Frida Kahlo celebrated their beauty and intelligence. Blossoms of Fire shows them in all their brightly colored, opinionated glory as they run their own businesses, embroider their signature fiery blossoms on clothing and comment with angry humor on articles in the foreign press that flippantly and inaccurately depict them as a promiscuous matriarchy. The people interviewed in this film share a strong work ethic and fierce independent streak rooted in Zapotec culture. These qualities have resulted not only in powerful women but also in the region’s progressive politics, manifested in their unusual tolerance of homosexuality. Veteran film editor and former Les Blank collaborator Maureen Gosling and codirector Ellen Osborne illuminate the infectious self-confidence of the Juchitán people. A midwife laughs over a young husband’s behavior during a birth, a gay man cheerfully asserts that “mama’s in charge” in Juchitán society and many proudly describe the challenges they face in their work and their families. Their lives may be hard, and maintaining their Zapotec culture and language may be an ongoing battle, but it’s plain that not one of these individuals—man, woman, young, old, gay or straight—would willingly change places with anyone in the first world.
—Pam Troy
FACTOID #300
When she attended the 1980 San Francisco International Film Festival for a tribute, Federico Fellini’s wife and muse Giulietta Masina, admitted that she accepted a bit part in the American film The Madwoman of Chaillot (despite the fact that she could not speak English) just so she could get costar Katherine Hepburn’s autograph.
