Name: Blossoms of Fire
Genre: Documentary
Released: 2000
Duration: 1 min 14 s

Brief Synopsis

Cast & Crew

Film Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Documentary

Release Date

2000

Distribution Company

INTRPIDAS; New Yorker Films; New Yorker Films; New Yorker Films

Location

Juchitan, Oaxaca, Mexico

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 14m

Synopsis

Celebrates the extraordinary lives of the Isthmus Zapotecs of southern Oaxaca, Mexico. The Isthmus Zapotecs, whose culture is rooted in a strong work ethic and fierce independent streak, have resulted not only in powerful women, but also in the region's progressive politics and an unusual tolerance of alternative gender roles. Artists like Miguel Covarrubias and Frida Kahlo have often celebrated and rendered tribute in their paintings to the legendary beauty of the woman of Juchitan. These brightly colored, opinionated women run their own businesses, embroider their signature of fiery flowers on clothing and comment with angry humor on articles in the foreign press that flippantly an inaccurately depict them as a promiscuous matriarchy. Their lives may be hard, and maintaining Zapotec culture and language may be an ongoing battle, but it is plain that not one of these individuals--man, woman, young, old, gay or straight--would willingly change places with anyone in the first world.