2 films created with filmmaker Isaac Zambra in Merida, Mexico
Posted on Aug 09, 2024Hool
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Hool
This short film was shot at the San Antonio HOOL ranch located on the outskirts of Merida in the Yucatan Peninsula. The name (San Antonio Hool) refers to the former owner Antonio de Padua, and hool which in the Mayan language means “hole”. The hacienda is from the 18th century when they produced the plant henequen, used in the production of rope, and from which we now get agave syrup. Since 1937 the hacienda had been abandoned until its remodeling a year after we created this film.
The HOOL film project focused on describing architecture as a relationship between body and space. From this perspective, we worked with one continuous journey through the different spaces for the duration of a day. The imprint of the stories contained within its walls shaped our improvisations. We were held in a trance-like state as the cameras followed the dancers throughout.
To achieve this state of being we had to generate a deeply felt and sensitized interaction with the place, respecting and dialoguing with its history and present context. Birds, diverse vegetation and insects were its current inhabitants, engendering a new texture and atmosphere that had been created over the passage of time.
In the span of a single day, from sunrise to sunset the filmmakers follow the dancers as they move, guided in their work by the whispers of past narratives contained within the spaces of the long-abandoned hacienda ‘San Antonio Hool’, in Merida, Mexico.
A meditative spell is cast during the process of capturing the powerful magic of this location on camera, which permeates and affects each member of the team.
Ghosts of past, present, and future are listened to—and live again—through the dancers’ embodied expression, honoring the haunting beauty of its architecture, the sense of suspended time, and a celebration of the mysteries of life.
Ánima
Ánima, created in 2022, is the second collaboration by Mexican architect-filmmaker Isaac Zambra, photographer Mario Morales (MX), dancer Kirstie Simson (UK/USA) and musician George Zambra (MX).
Our challenge has been to ask the question: Could we make a film that embodies a sense of what Life is calling for from us humans at this time? Perhaps to quieten, to listen intently, and to reflect on how to move forward into our unknown future. How to merge ‘with’ Life, in lieu of asserting dominion over Life.
We were given a once in a lifetime opportunity to enter an underground site called Aktun Usil, a place held sacred by a civilization who lived a different understanding about the divine nature of Life.
Could we allow the timeless wisdom held within the rocks in this awe-inspiring chamber in the belly of the earth to dictate our movements, our vision?
Through offering our reverence and care, through tuning our senses acutely to the unknowable, could we allow ourselves to become the instruments of this timeless space that emanated profound and pristine silence?
The film Ánima is our attempt at addressing this challenge.
By following the play of the natural light and rock formations we discovered a kind of narrative.
We sensed the majesty of this great space imparting a perspective on our collective plight – helping us to see, hear, and glimpse a perception of where our rightful place might be in service of this planet.
Short synopsis:
This film looks at a human form moving within an extreme environment deep inside the earth. Aktun Usil is a vast subterranean cave held sacred by a past civilization. Can the modern human allow for necessary transformation through striving to surrender into a radically different relationship with earths innate and ancient wisdom? Through experimental filmmaking, movement, sound, spoken word, and costume, this film takes us on an exploratory journey where inner and outer states of consciousness merge, inside and outside the boundaries of time.
