The Roots
By: Producer Manuel Barbachano Ponce; directed by Benito Alazraki
Contributors: Flores, Beatriz, cast; Del Lago, Alicia, cast; Negrón, Miguel Angel, cast; Rojas González, Francisco, 1903-1951; Audio Brandon Films
Edition: Spanish language film released by Audio Brandon Films in the United States.
Publisher: Audio Brandon Films
Published: 1958
Place of publication: United States
Language: eng
Number of pages: 8190
Subjects: Indians of Mexico; Social life and customs; Poor; Ethnology; Catholics; Blindness; Bullying; Breastfeeding; Poverty; Blind children; Men; Sexual behavior; Economic conditions
Work titles: Raíces (Motion picture : [1958?]). 35 mm
Description: A compilation of four stories by the author Francisco Rojas González. In The Cows, the first of these segments, a young Mexican woman is forced to take a job as a wet nurse in order to support her husband and child. In a later segment, Our Lady, an American anthropologist conducts her research during several months in a remote Mexican village, leading to a change in her perceptions of both herself and her indigenous subjects. In the segment The One Eyed Boy, a young man, blind in one eye is mercilessly tormented by the village children. He finds happiness only when he finally becomes completely blind. The final story, The Filly, tells the tale of an archeologist who obsessed with a local villager's daughter, offers to buy the girl from her father. The father agrees, but then reciprocates, offering twice as much for the archeologist's wife. Director Benito Alazraki relied on a cast of primarily non professional indigenous actors to tell these four tales of rural Mexico. The stories reflect the insulated and impoverished social conditions that existed in the indigenous communities of Mexico when the film was made.
Notes: Harvard Film Archive picture and titles, HFA Item no. 13073; 12159; from the Brandon Film Library Collection.

Titles for the feature film.

1958 is the production date and not necessarily the year this film was released in the United States.

Running time 98 minutes, Cf. OCLC website, August 7th, 2010.

Based on four Indian tales by Francisco Rojas Gonzalez taken from his book, El Diosero.

Produced in Mexico, this film was released in the United States by Audio Brandon Films.

Producer, Manuel Barbachano Ponce; director, Benito Alazraki.

Beatriz Flores, Alicia del Lago, Miguel Angel Negrón, Olimpia Alazraki.

Spanish language film.

Winner of the Cannes Film Festival International Critics Award.