Screened as part of NZIFF 2011

Circo 2010

Directed by Aaron Schock

Filmmaker Aaron Schock hits the road with Gran Circo México, a family of contortionists, stunt riders, clowns and animal trainers who have been travelling the back roads of Mexico for generations. Music by Calexico.

Mexico / USA In Spanish with English subtitles
75 minutes DigiBeta

Director, Photography

Producers

Aaron Schock
,
Jannat Gargi

Screenplay

Aaron Schock
,
Mark Becker

Editor

Mark Becker

Sound

Ron Bochar
,
Lidia Tamplenizza
,
Chad Birmingham

Music

Calexico

With

Juventino ‘Tino’ Ponce Ledezma
,
Ivonne Galindo Valenzuela
,
Moisés Ponce Galindo
,
Julio César Ponce Galindo
,
Juventino ‘Cáscaras’ Ponce Galindo
,
Alexia Guadalupe Ponce Caglindo
,
Alfredo ‘Don Gilberto’ Ponce Galindo
,
Guadalupe ‘Doña Lupe’ Ledezma Ortíz
,
Gilberto ‘Tacho’ Ponce Ledezma
,
Erika Ponce Ledezma
,
Reyna Irene Ponce Ledezma
,
Naydelín Virgen Ponce
,
Alejandra García Tirado

Festivals

Los Angeles, London 2010

Elsewhere

Schock captures the beauty of the performance traditions they uphold, while a rousing Calexico soundtrack rejoices in the romantic mix of flight and longing that is a life on the road. But the film is also attentive to the inherent family dramas: ringmaster Tino’s children have absorbed his love of the hardscrabble circus life to varying degrees, but for his wife, Ivonne – a town girl who fell for the dashing circus boy – the romance has come at a cost. — BG

“Gilliam-esque whimsy meets the evening redness of Peckinpah’s West in a dusky gem of a documentary... Switching back and forth between the weightless beauty of the big-top and the parlous financial and familial situation backstage, it’s a crisply shot, emotionally frank and genuinely moving glimpse into a way of life that has become almost too fragile to continue.” — Adam Lee Davies, Time Out

“‘The circus is tough and beautiful,’ says one talking head in Aaron Schock’s documentary… It’s an apt description of the film itself, a riveting patchwork of interconnected family dramas – difficult in-laws, money-driven arguments, the tensions between honoring family tradition and forging one's own path. Schock’s camera – he does lovely work as the cinematographer – follows the Ponce family (who’ve been in the circus biz for more than 100 years) as they tackle the vagaries of a life that’s intrinsically hard-knock, all while working toward a final image that's both triumphant and sad.” — Ernest Hardy, LA Weekly