Recent times have witnessed women rising up to demand equality and representation, and challenging male abuses of power. Proyector’s program centers on the crucial importance of the inclusion of women in politics. Through a feature documentary about Mexico’s first indigenous woman to chair the state Congress of Oaxaca, we’ll look at the much needed change to the status quo. A short film of Myanmar’s first democratic election in over 50 years -led by controversial figure and Nobel Peace Prize winning Aung San Suu Kyi- opens the discussion about the persuasive risks of political ambition.

A part of our collaboration with Proyector, a showcase of contemporary independent Mexican films, this program will include Luciana Kaplan’s feature, Eufrosina’s Revolution preceded by a short THE VOTE from Field of Vision. We are excited to have Kaplan in attendance for a discussion after the screening with programmers of Proyector Sebastian Díaz and Melissa Saucedo.

Special thanks to program partners Cinema Tropical, Mexican Cultural Institute NY, Remezcla, Cinelandia and to Field of Vision for sharing their work!

The Vote observes residents of the bustling city of Yangon as they navigate their first democratic election in over 50 years.

In 2007, Eufrosina Cruz Mendoza was elected President of Oaxaca’s municipal council, but was denied the position because she was a woman. Instead of stopping her, this denial started her on a even bigger political career. Director Luciana Kaplan doggedly follows Eufrosina as she attacks gender inequality and the lack of women’s voting rights in her community, while being harassed by government leaders in every step of the way.

Luciana Kaplan was born in Argentina in 1971. She lives in Mexico City since 1975, where she studied ‘Documentary Filmmaking’ at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC).

She has directed several documentaries, three of which have received funding from the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (National Fund for Arts and Culture).

In 2010 she won the Debut Award from the CCC with the project “La Revolución de los Alcatraces” (Eufrosina’s Revolution). From 2007 to 2013 she worked as a director of the Scholarship Gucci/Ambulante and Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Ambulante, for documentary post-production as well as a Documentary Program coordinator at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica in Mexico City. Her second feature film “Rush Hour”, just won the Best Mexican Documentary Award at the Morelia International Film Festival.

She is currently working at her third feature documentary film “The Spokeswoman” about a new indigenous political movement lead by a woman.