NEW

EL VELADOR (The Night Watchman), 2011

"An unsettlingly quiet, even lyrical film about a world made and unmade by violence"
- A.O. Scott, The New York Times

Night after night, Martin watches over the extravagant mausoleums of some of Mexico's most powerful drug lords like a guardian angel. Set in a massive, labyrinthine cemetery in the hours between dusk and dawn, EL VELADOR (THE NIGHTWATCHMAN) is a peaceful meditation on violence. Natalia Almada's haunting documentary reminds us that even today, during the turmoil of Mexico's bloodiest conflict since the revolution, ordinary life persists.

NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH ICARUS FILMS

FOLLOW EL VELADOR ON FACEBOOK

FILMS

El General, 2009

In 1910 a revolution erupted in Mexico, among its rallying cries "the right to vote." Nearly a century later "Sufragio Efectivo" is heard again as thousands take to the streets. Through the legacy that filmmaker Natalia Almada inherited as the great-granddaughter of Mexican president Plutarco Elias Calles (1924-1928), one of Mexico's most controversial revolutionary figures accused of having been a "Dictator", "Iron Man" and "Nun-Burner", yet also acclaimed for having been the "father of modern Mexico," El General is a portrait of a family and a country under the shadow of the past.

DISTRIBUTED BY WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

Al Otro Lado, 2005

An aspiring corrido composer from the drug capital of Mexico faces two choices to better his life: to traffic drugs or to cross the border illegally into the United States. From Sinaloa, Mexico to the streets of South Central and East L.A., “Al Otro Lado” explores the world of drug smuggling, illegal immigration and the corrido music that chronicles it all.

DISTRIBUTED BY SUBCINE

All Water Has A Perfect Memory, 2001

”All Water has a Perfect Memory” is a poignant experimental documentary that explores the effects of tragedy and remembrance on a bi-cultural family. This moving piece lyrically meditates on the cultural and gender differences between the filmmaker's North American mother and Mexican father as they evoke the loss of their child.

DISTRIBUTED BY WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

BIO

Natalia Almada

Recipient of the 2009 Sundance Documentary Directing Award for her film “El General,” Almada’s most recent film “El Velador” premiered at New Directors/New Films and the Cannes' Directors' Fortnight. Her previous credits include “All Water Has a Perfect Memory,” an experimental short film that received international recognition; “Al Otro Lado,” her award-winning debut feature documentary about immigration, drug trafficking and corrido music. Almada’s films have screened at The Sundance Film Festival, The Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum and The Whitney Biennial and all three feature documentaries have broadcast on the award-winning series POV. Almada is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a 2008 Guggenheim Fellow and a 2010 USA Artist Fellow and a recipient of the Alpert Award. She graduated with a Masters in Fine Arts in photography from the Rhode Island School of Design and shares her time between Mexico City and Brooklyn, New York.

ALPERT AWARD INTERVIEW
TEDx SAN MIGUEL TALK
BOMB MAGAZINE INTERVIEW

DOWNLOAD HIGH-RESOLUTION PHOTO OF NATALIA ALMADA