STATEMENT  DE REALIZACIÓN

MACDO displays filial interactions that are infested with normalized aggression and unbalanced power dynamics. It enters a dialogue concerning how the domestic sphere sets the mood and the rules for what happens in the collective.

Catholic values and white aspirations have been deeply engrained in Mexico’s society through colonialism and american imperialism, and are constantly reinforced through the media. Guilt and fear are a must, white lies are the actual equivalent of telling our truths and any type of love inherently involves pain and abuse. This is normal. This is what’s expected. And this is what I put forward in MACDO.

I decided to populate the film with a family like the ones often portrayed in telenovelas, the means of storytelling that has reigned over the mass audiences in our country for decades. Knowing what I was on a quest to present is alive in all of us, Mexicans, through tradition, I chose actors that knew their characters in depth previously to the project, because it was a parent, a friend or a close relative.

To create the visual language for the !lm, Negin (DOP), Carmen (AC) and I watched many hours of family videos. We identified the power of this footage came from the truth guaranteed in the scintillation available only through the now.

We, cast & crew, carefully articulated a pre- constructed !ctional space. Before shooting the film, we inhabited it multiple times. We explored the substances it emanated as well as the limits that shaped our roles, both in front and behind the camera. We knit an invisible web and, when the time to shoot came, all we had to do was give in to the circumstances natural time provided.

We created set dynamics that would allow us to capture bodies moving through space creating vibrant compositions and tell a story around power dynamics, tenderness, hate and survival mode. This was made possible through a restless camera that was ever-aware of its surroundings. One with the ability to both move around the space freely impulsed by spontaneous action, and, at the same time ignored by the characters, because it belonged in the world it is exploring.