The idea

For the longest time, my family has wanted to document my grandfather’s life. He grew up in a town in the middle of nowhere, with no proper school system, and his family wanted him to work in the field, which he refused to do. He instead turned to carpentry and radio making, and moved to the city, where he passed from job to job, starting at a gas station and eventually turning into a line manager at Kodak.

My aunt, a literature teacher, tried to write about his life once. I did too. My sister also attempted it. But for some reason, we never completed the project, probably because we thought we had all the time in the world.

My grandmother from my mother’s side passed away during the pandemic, and I realized that I didn’t have all the time in the world. But writing a biography still seemed intimidating. Which is when I realized… Why am I trying to write it? I am a filmmaker… So why not turn it into a movie?

The obstacles

I understood early on that I had two problems: too much content (a person’s life) and too little experience to create anything beyond short film length. I knew I had to find a better angle.

I also realized that this couldn’t be a project only about my grandfather: that it had to focus on my grandmother too, who had wonderful adventures of her own I also wanted to preserve.

Preserve. That was a scary word. How can someone dig into the past and reconstruct the truth of what it really was? This word had paralyzed me for so long, I didn’t believe I was capable of accessing the past like that. And if I wanted to share my grandparents' memories… I had to take a different approach.

Making the film

Our process started during the pandemic. My sister and I interviewed our two grandparents, asking them about their childhoods and all the way to their marriage. After a couple of months, I went through all our recordings again, and decided on a set of stories that would each work on their own and as a whole: four from Abuelo, four from Lita and two told by both.

Once I edited the interviews into these separate chapters, I reached out to everyone I knew and eventually recruited a group of directors (originally ten, besides me).

I offered my perspective to them: that the magic of the project was going to lie in its fragmented nature, and that my priority was to help realize a vision unique to each director.

The objective: Not only to remember, but to reimagine and meditate on the power of stories as they are passed on from one generation to another. To celebrate heritage and come to terms with the passage of time; from reality, to memory, to narration, to imagination, to creation, to perception. A propagation of Latin American and Mexican perspective.

I guided each director in choosing their story, brainstorming ideas, and developing their piece in the collage. I oversaw each film’s production process, went through ups and downs, picked ourselves back up when some collaborators were forced to abandon the project, and kept driving the team forward.

The screening

January 6th, 2022; it’s my grandparents’ anniversary, and I am sitting in my living room, a year after our first interview, next to them, showing the final product on our TV screen, worrying that they’re going to accuse me of being unfaithful to their story, that they’re not going to understand. They laugh, gasp and comment on each story… “There were a lot of bats in that building.” my grandparent says five seconds before a bat appears on screen, as if queued by his own present narration.

At the end of the hour-long film, I turn over. My grandmother is crying. She comes up to me to hug me, and tells me that even though she won’t be here to see who I will become as a filmmaker, she believes in me, and that she’s proud. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Credits

Produced by

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Co-produced by

Andrea Ibarra del Castillo

Narrated by

Luz Ilusión Pardo de Ibarra &

Alberto Ibarra González

Title cards

Chad Buley

Interviewers

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Andrea Ibarra del Castillo

Written by

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Chapter 1: Roadtrips

Directed, edited and photographed by

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Co-produced by

Luis Alberto Ibarra Pardo

Special thanks

Juan Carlos Murillo

Chapter 2: Drawings

Directed and animated by

Ella Grace Rodriguez

Music by

Daniel Montes de Oca

Chapter 3: Consuelo

Directed, edited and photographed by

Aristotle Hartzell

Music by

Bruno Bernal

Music mixed by

Kofi Graves

In order of appearance:

Adam Guzman

Salvador P. Alvarez

Grace Burton

Aristotle Hartzell

Salomón Huerta

Evan Hartzell

Special thanks to

Catalina Huerta

Jacob Winthrop

Laura Alvarez

Richard Alvarez

Ysidro Hartzell

Y mis abuelitos

Chapter 4: Strangers

Directed and animated by

Ana Flavia Veiga

Chapter 5: Coffins

Directed, edited and photographed by

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Starring

Luis Alberto Ibarra Pardo

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Verónica del Castillo Contreras

With the help of

Verónica del Castillo Contreras

Luis Alberto Ibarra Pardo

Chapter 6: Envelope

Directed, created and edited by

Gabriela Bazaldúa

Drawings by

Gabriela Bazaldúa

Chapter 7: Radios

Directed and animated by

Chad Buley

Music by

Leo Major

Chapter 8: Kodak

Directed, edited, photographed and animated by

Michelle Pugh

“Forest Walk” by Alexander Nakarada

https://soundcloud.com/serpentsoundstudios/

forest-walk-no-copyright-relaxing-fantasy-music

Chapter 9: Encounter

Directed, edited and photographed by

Sofia Uribe

Music by

Santiago Maldonado Galaviz

Starring

Pablo Uribe

Fernanda Uribe

Sofia Uribe

Chapter 10: Dates

Directed, edited and photographed by

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Music by

Daniel Montes de Oca

Art Direction

Andrea Ibarra del Castillo

Camera Assistants

Andrea Ibarra del Castillo

Sofía Ugalde Cacho

Starring

Alberto Ibarra González

Luz Ilusión Pardo de Ibarra

Poem: “The Mind” by Silvio Pellico

Other

Subtitle Translation

Sebastián Ibarra del Castillo

Andrea Ibarra del Castillo

Aitana Olarra

Ana Karen Catalá

Gabriela Bazaldúa

Heidi Atlas

Special Thanks

Verónica del Castillo Contreras

Luis Alberto Ibarra Pardo

Daniela Robles

Livan Felix

Santiago Flores Medina

Aylish Turner

Dedicated to Male y Go

To

Beto, Caro, Carlos, Chacha, Coco, Consuelo,

David, Isabel, Julieta, Licha, Miguel, Marta,

Martocha, Maru, Nacho, Paco, Sergio,

Socorro and all my other great aunts and uncles,

and their stories…

To my family.