The Chunta Press Kit

“It’s about joy. It’s about waking up the earth and its seeds, waking up color, waking up life itself.” – José Eliezer Esponda Cáceres

Synopsis

In a small town in Mexico, once a year, men transform into women and become the Chuntá. Follow two gender-bending gangs of dancers as they face off in a struggle between queer identity and powerful traditions.

Press

Las Chunta Willamette Week

“Las Chuntá is both a scrappy chronicle and an ethnographic portrait of an unlikely subculture that’s touchingly timely.” —Remezcla

“‘Las Chuntá’ Doc Shines a Light on the Gender-Bending Men of Mexico’s Fiesta Grande” in Remezcla
“Las Chuntá Explores a Gender-Twisting Tradition in Small-Town Mexico” in The Willamette Week
Interview with The Chunta director on Oregon Public Broadcasting
“The Chunta” review in Reed College Magazine
“‘The Chunta’ Delves into Gender-bending Tradition in Mexico” in Minnesota Monthly
“The Latinx Community Needs Allies” in Fortune Magazine
Film review on FlixChatter: “A visual treat.”
Queerguru’s “TOP TEN PICKS at OUT ON FILM Atlanta’s LGBTQ Film Festival“
“The Chunta film and Queer Latinx community panel coming to NW Film Center” (online / PDF / .doc)
“Documental mexicano, Queer, de cineasta Minnesotano, llega al Festival de Cine de las Cuidades Gemelas” in La Prensa de Minnesota
Interview with The Chunta director on Potboiler Story Co.
“The Harsh Reality of the Chuntas,” in The Mesa Press
Spanish interview on Univision TV
Buscando America Spanish radio interview on KBOO Radio (around minute 60)
Broadly article: “The Queer Dancers Fighting to Take Part in an Annual Gender-Bending Celebration” (note: article uses former, working title of film)
Reed College: “Anthro Alumni Make Documentary Film in Chiapas, Mexico”
The Portland Tribune: “The Chunta Transforms Tradition”

Press release available here

“There’s a cost for the Chuntas going against gender roles and machismo, and coming out as homosexual.People don’t like it because it makes them uncomfortable. Traditional celebrations like the Fiesta Grande can help us to raise consciousness about this.” – José Eliezer Esponda Cáceres

Photos

“It’s about accepting ourselves just as we are. Respecting each other, and dancing with joy. For me it’s a very emotional thing to do a fertility dance. It means belonging to the earth, belonging in this world.” – Isauro Vidal

Videos

Interviews (Spanish only)

Screener available by request, contact us here

Director Genevieve Roudané listens to an audience member, alongside Chunta dancers Fabian Chairo, Isauro Vidal, and Domingo Flores.

Bio

Genevieve Roudané is a queer filmmaker who has worked as director, cinematographer, editor, educator, and organizer on diverse productions across the Americas over the past decade. She is the director of the documentary film The Chunta, the story of a queer gang of gender-bending dancers fighting to exist in southern Mexico. Roudané’s work focuses on the intersection of art and activism, and she has been a part of grassroots media organizing projects in Mexico and Central America. She is a co-leader of the Portland chapter of Film Fatales. Roudané is a member of Women in Film, the Mexican Documentary Filmmakers Network, and the Women Behind the Camera cooperative; co-founder of Proyecto Medusa and the Ocote Film Festival; and founding member of Cine Catrina productions.