Catalogue > At random

This ethnographic excursion is a feast for the eyes paced by the quotidian chorus of sounds in a Chiapan village. Gradually, political themes arise. As it relates the legacy of co-director Saúl Kak's refugeed forebears, (((((/*\))))) (AKA echoes of the volcano) gives voice to the Zoque struggle for Indigenous sovereignty, against the neoliberal state.

Saúl Kak is an internationally acclaimed painter and native speaker of Zoque whose art practice is dedicated to the "cosmovisión" and rights of his people. The son of campesinos who fled the eruption of Chichonal volcano in 1982, Saúl directs the art residency program at Galería MUY, a contemporary art center for Indigenous art and artists. Charles Fairbanks is a filmmaker, writer, and Guggenheim fellow whose films have screened on POV and at Anthology Film Archives, CPH:DOX, Visions du Réel, and over 100 other festivals on six continents. Together, Fairbanks and Kak strive to document the Zoque people’s modern challenges and unique worldview: this cosmovision. Their previous film THE MODERN JUNGLE was picked by multiple critics as one of the best Latino films of 2016; it was awarded Best Documentary at Présence Autochtone: The First Nations Festival of Montreal, and jury awards at Slamdance and Athens.