El Mar La Mar
An immersive and enthralling journey through the Sonoran Desert on the U.S.-Mexico border, El Mar La Mar weaves together harrowing oral histories from the area with hand-processed 16mm images of flora, fauna and items left behind by travelers. Subjects speak of intense, mythic experiences in the desert: A man tells of a fifteen-foot-tall monster said to haunt the region, while a border patrolman spins a similarly bizarre tale of man versus beast. A sonically rich soundtrack adds to the eerie atmosphere as the call of birds and other nocturnal noises invisibly populate the austere landscape. Emerging from the ethos of Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab, J.P. Sniadecki's attentive documentary approach mixes perfectly with Joshua Bonnetta's meditations on the materiality of film. Together, they've created an experience of the border region like nothing you've seen, heard or felt before.
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Cast
5 people
J.P. Sniadecki Director · Joshua Bonnetta Director
Worldwide gross $9.1K · United States release April 6, 2017 · Produced in United States
Box office
Worldwide gross
$9,065
Production
United States
Produced in
Languages
Original language
Spanish
Spoken on screen
English · Spanish
Release dates
Germany · February 11, 2017
Premiere · Berlin International Film Festival
United States · April 6, 2017
Premiere · San Francisco International Film Festival
Austria
October 23, 2017 · Premiere · Vienna International Film Festival
France
March 24, 2018 · Premiere · Villeurbanne Festival Reflets du cinéma ibérique et latino-américain
Hong Kong SAR China
April 21, 2017 · Premiere · Hong Kong International Film Festival
Israel
May 13, 2017 · Premiere · DocAviv Film Festival
Netherlands
November 16, 2017 · Premiere · International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
Poland
May 13, 2017 · Premiere · Docs Against Gravity Film Festival
Portugal
May 4, 2017 · Premiere · IndieLisboa International Film Festival
United Kingdom
October 8, 2017 · Premiere · London Film Festival
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Some details come from TheTVDB.