{"id":20026,"date":"2021-08-08T18:22:50","date_gmt":"2021-08-08T22:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hunterword.com\/?p=20026"},"modified":"2021-08-09T11:47:53","modified_gmt":"2021-08-09T15:47:53","slug":"499-film-trailer-review-by-ismael-nunez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/hunterword.com\/index.php\/499-film-trailer-review-by-ismael-nunez\/","title":{"rendered":"499 Trailer Review<\/span><\/strong><\/small>
Powerful Film by Mexican America Director Rodrigo Reyes"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nThis is the fourth feature film by Mexican-American Director Rodrigo Reyes, and it is a history lesson that should be taught in high schools and colleges across the country.<\/p>\n

The scope of the film ranges from the impact on the Spanish Conquest led by Hernando Cort\u00e8s to the drug wars\/trade by mass murdering cartels headed by the likes of El Chapo to the mass murders and killings in the city of Juarez. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Hot Docs and the Best Cinematography Award at Tribeca, the Unique Docu-Fiction Hybrid by Rodrigo Reyes. 499 opens August 20 at BAM Rose Cinemas in New York City, followed by openings in Los Angeles and San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire in 2021, Reyes offers a bold hybrid cinema experience exploring the brutal legacy of colonialism in contemporary Mexico. The story telling is through the eyes of a spectral conquistador played by actor Eduardo San Juan Bre\u00f1a. Director Reyes recreates Hern\u00e1n Cort\u00e9s\u2019 epic journey from the coasts of Veracruz to the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, the site of contemporary Mexico City. As the anachronistic fictional\/spectral character interacts with real victims and subjects of Mexico\u2019s failed drug wars, the filmmaker portrays the country\u2019s current humanitarian crisis as part of a vicious and unfinished colonial project, still in motion, nearly five-hundred years later.<\/p>\n

499 mixes non-fictional and performative elements with elements of the road movie to show how past traumas continue to affect contemporary reality. While linking these seemingly disparate histories of violence, the film shows why Director Reyes is considered one of the most potent voices in American independent cinema.<\/p>\n

Marking the 500th anniversary of the Spanish conquest on August 13, 2021, and preceding the film\u2019s U.S. theatrical release, the filmmaking team has organized a Mexican tour for 499 following Cort\u00e9s\u2019 original route from Veracruz to present-day Mexico City, taking place from July 31 to August 11. The program will visit towns along the conquistador\u2019s path, hosting special screenings of the film alongside conversations on the history of Mexico and the ongoing social problems that each community has faced in the aftermath of colonization.<\/p>\n