The Following event is part of Tucson Cine Mexico 2012, which takes place at various locations throughout Tucson from February 29 through March 3. Click here for the entire schedule, or here to print a copy of the program. All films are in Spanish with English subtitles.

Naco es chido/ Kitsch is cool

Reclaiming the Pop in Popular Culture: Lo Naco and other takes on Mexicanness. A brief presentation by Laura G. Gutiérrez of the UA Department of Spanish and Portuguese, precedes the screening. Presented in collaboration with Shooting Southward, UA Latin American Film Association.

In Person: DirectorSergio Arai and actress Yareli Arizmendi

Naco es chido/Kitch is Cool
Official Selection, Guadalajara International Film Festival in Los Angeles, 2011
Mexico, 2010, 90 mins.
Director: Sergio Arau

In this inventive mockumentary, director Sergio Arau (A Day Without a Mexican) revisits his old musical group Botellita de Jerez, pioneers of “guacarock” in the 1980s. The band’s blend of blues, cumbia, punk and performance art has proven highly influential (Botellita’s disciples include La Maldita Vecindad and Café Tacuba), and their sharp sense of humor is put to fine use here. A crazy quilt of music, comedy and Mexican culture, Naco es Chido stitches together actual footage from the band’s heyday and interviews with other music stars with a fictitious storyline about a rediscovered recording that sparks a reunion of the now down-on-their-luck group members.

Laura G. Gutiérrez is Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Her research and teaching areas are Mexican visual cultural studies, Latin American and Latina/o studies, film and media studies, popular and mass culture, performance studies, and gender and sexuality. Dr. Gutiérrez also part of the UA Hanson Film Institute's Planning Committee and mainly works around the planning and organizing of the annual Tucson Cine México Film Festival.