Film phase:Production
SYNOPSIS
(Formerly Milpa)
The jaripeo is the heart of what it means to be a Mexican cowboy, a celebration of machismo with huge importance to the largely diasporic community from Michoacán. But looking closely, the same rodeo arena can reveal another world: a knowing glance between two men, a small brush of the hand on another’s back. Using the jaripeo as the stage on which we follow the lives of our characters, a space opens up to question: What lies beneath the performance of machismo? How does queer desire survive in oppressively traditional spaces? How will our protagonists find belonging in masculinity, in their community—and within themselves?
Jaripeo is a participant of the 2024 (Egg)celerator Lab.
ABOUT THE DIRECTORS
Efraín Mojica (they/them) is a photographer, filmmaker, and multidisciplinary artist from the Mexican State of Michoacán living in Mexico City. Their work has been shown in galleries including Kunstverein Neukolln and MZ Galleries in Berlin, Magia Roja in Barcelona, the Factory in Seattle, and Zyanya in Mexico City. Video art is a central part of Efraín’s art, and their filmmaking, in turn, is heavily influenced by their conceptual artwork which explores the translation and interpolation of different mediums—light, sound, and matter.
Rebecca Zweig (she/her) is an award-winning writer, poet, and filmmaker living in Mexico City. Her work has been featured in such places as The New York Times, The Nation, and Revista Nexos, among others, and is forthcoming in Harper’s and n+1. Her documentary directorial debut with Efraín Mojica has received support from the Points North Fellowship and the SFFILM Documentary Film Fund. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop.
ABOUT THE PRODUCER
Sarah Strunin (she/her) is a documentary producer living in Los Angeles, California. She recently worked as a Producer at This Machine Filmworks and as a freelancer she has worked closely with award-winning directors Liza Mandelup, R.J. Cutler, Cecilia Peck, Nancy Schwartzman and Ben Sinclair. She was a 2023 Points North Fellow for Jaripeo (formerly Milpa), and is producing two other feature films that have together received support from Catapult, IDA, SFFILM, and BAVC.