Synopsis
Produced out of Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, the film follows a group of matriarchal weavers in Mexico, whose backstrap loom – a pre-Hispanic technique preserved for centuries by Indigenous women in Mesoamerica – provides the formal structure for the film’s exploration of handicrafts and their ties to freedom.
A word from Tënk
A film of undeniable strength and gentleness. With only a few words and a few images, Laura Huertas Millan shows us how important it is to have the freedom to create, to think and to move through the world as our true selves. For some, this freedom must be expressed and lived outside of a marriage that too often entraps the individual. Beyond our protagonist’s words, limited as they are in this film, we find their actions. The act of creation. The filmmaker’s camera lingers on their movements, on their bodies and, particularly, on their hands. The creation of works of art (or of a simple meal) that makes up a part of daily life and the traditions animating it. Actions without concern for any outside observer, uncorrupted by a quest for artistic value. With its meticulous attention and a degree of tenderness, this film explores the foundations of an artistic life and reminds us that freedom is always possible.
Miryam Charles
Filmmaker
