Mexico: The Frozen Revolution

Gleyzer's documentary analyses the betrayal of the 1910 revolution, incorporating rare newsreel footage of Villa and Zapata, not as historical decoration but as part of a dialectic that culminates in the massacre by troops of the present regime of some 400 students in one day during the Mexican Olympics. By being at all times specific, the film gains reverberations that reach well beyond its immediate subject, without letting that subject slide into second place. It's genuinely informative about Mexico as well as being a very gracefully made film. It also makes almost a virtue of the narrative voice-over, balancing it whenever possible against interviews with individuals - and if the level of political awareness of those individuals seems impressive, it's surely a comment on our own media.