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GUADALUPE

A fascinating journey through Mexican culture and spirituality in search of the origins of the Virgin of Guadalupe, an icon that emerged after the shocking clash between Europe and the Mesoamerican peoples. With all its lights and shadows, this ‘brown skinned’ virgin is the first and most important sign of Mexican identity.

  • Jesús Manuel Munoz
    Director
    Un filósofo en la arena
  • Jesús Manuel Munoz
    Writer
  • Rafael Casañ
    Writer
    Un filósofo en la arena
  • Aaron Fernández
    Producer
    Un filósofo en la arena
  • Jesus Manuel Munoz
    Producer
    Un filósofo en la arena
  • Elsa Reyes
    Producer
    La suerte de Juán
  • Marion D'Ornano
    Producer
    La suerte de Juán
  • Rafael Casañ
    Producer
    La guapa
  • Juan Antonio Casas
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Yohualli López
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Rodrigo Martínez Baracs
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Rafael Tena
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Liliana Vargas
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Gisela von Wobeser
    Key Cast
    "Self"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    TONANZIN GUADALUPE
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 30 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    May 25, 2023
  • Production Budget:
    980,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Mexico
  • Country of Filming:
    Mexico, Spain
  • Language:
    Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    D-Cinema 48kHz 5.1
  • Aspect Ratio:
    2.39:1
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Rhode Island International Film Festival
    Providence
    United States
    September 20, 2023
  • DOCS MX
    Mexico City
    Mexico
    October 18, 2023
    World Premier
  • Red Nation Film Festival
    Los Angeles
    United States
    November 8, 2023
    North American Premiere
    Nominated for Best Documentary
  • Fresnillo Film Festival
    Fresnillo
    Mexico
    November 16, 2023
  • Silk Road film Festival
    Dublin
    Ireland
    November 20, 2023
    European Premiere
  • Las Cruces International Film Festival
    Las Cruces, New Mexico
    United States
    April 15, 2024
    New Mexico Premiere
  • Docs Valencia
    Valencia
    Spain
    May 4, 2024
    European premiere
    Offical Selection Global Docs Competition
  • Worldfest Houston International Film Festival
    Houston, Texas
    United States
    May 2, 2024
    Texas Premiere
    Silver Remy Winner
  • Experimental Forum
    Los Angeles, California
    United States
    April 12, 2024
    Honorable Mention
  • Oklahoma Latino Film FEstival
    Oklahoma
    United States
    March 27, 2024
    Oklahoma Premiere
    Winner Best Cinematography
  • Philadelphia Latino Arts & Film Festival
    Philadelhia, PA
    United States
    May 26, 2024
    Pennsylvania Premiere
  • Ogeechee International History Film Festival
    Statesboro, GA
    United States
    February 28, 2024
    Georgia Premiere
    Best Picture
  • Atlanta Docufest
    Atlanta, GA
    United States
    March 22, 2024
Distribution Information
  • Pablo Velasco Lomelí
    Sales Agent
    Country: Mexico
    Rights: Video on Demand, Pay Per View, Theatrical, Video / Disc, Free TV, Paid TV
Director Biography - Jesús Manuel Munoz

Jesús Muñoz was born and raised in the Mexican border town of Juárez, across El Paso Texas. After receiving a BA in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania, he studied filmmaking at the London Film School in England. His work has been screened at several international film festivals and broadcast in America and Europe. Jesus' documentaries address complex and controversial topics that lead the audience towards a more nuanced perspective.

In the year 2000, his TV documentary "Frida Kahlo: the ribbon that ties the bomb" premiered on HBO Latin America and was sold in several territories throughout the world for broadcast television.

In 2018 he co-produced and co-directed the feature documentary “A Philosopher in the Arena”, which grossed the highest cinema box-office in Mexico for a feature documentary in 2018, was unanimously hailed by critics and was part of critic Ernesto Diez Martinez's "Best of Mexican Cinema 2018". The film was picked by Pantaleon films in the US and distributed by iTunes in Latin America.

"Guadalupe, The Making of a Nation" to be released in 2023 is his first feature documentary film as solo director. Narrated by Mexican actress Mabel Cadena (Black Panther: Wakanada forever), the film’s titles and graphic design was created by Dan Perri (Raging Bull – Suspiria – There Will Be Blood) and makes use of the Nahuatl language with indigenous actors in several of its scenes.

He is set to begin filming “Offsiders” a feature documentary portrait of a children’s football club in ‘El Segundo Barrio’, an emblematic Hispanic immigrant area in El Paso, Texas known as the Ellis Island of the southern United States.

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Director Statement

When weaving narratives, the result always ends up somewhere between reality and myth. Documentary filmmaking is no exception, the result is never 100% real. From the moment a subject and camara position is chosen, bias comes into play; no matter how minimal there is always a certain degree of manipulation on the filmmaker’s part. Later in the process during the editing, the filmmaker's subjective persuasion effort is absolute, as it should be. To achieve an in depth exploration of the grey area between fiction and reality in documentary filmmaking, I decided to embrace three entirely different filmmaking narrative styles within the film. This is the experimental element of this film. Although its main topic is the miraculous apparition of Mexico's virgin of Guadalupe in the 16th century, the use of these three different narrative styles in a documentary film grants it a unique discourse that allows the viewer to further reflect on the nature of storytelling itself as the documentary's narrative captures reality from three entirely different perspectives.