Cinetismo Mexicano

Exploring a Kinetic Tradition 🇲🇽

The term ‘Cinetismo Mexicano’ is not a standard, recognized film movement in the same vein as the ‘Golden Age’ or ‘Nuevo Cine Mexicano.’ Instead, it can be understood as a way to describe a specific and vital tendency within Mexico’s rich tradition of avant-garde and experimental filmmaking. The term combines ‘Cine’ (cinema) with ‘Cinetismo’ (Kinetic Art), an international art movement that emphasizes movement, light, and perception.

Thus, Cinetismo Mexicano would refer to experimental films that prioritize the kinetic and plastic qualities of the medium over traditional narrative. This is a cinema of pure form, motion, and sensation.

Characteristics of a ‘Kinetic Cinema’

Filmmakers working in this vein are less interested in telling stories and more interested in exploring the fundamental building blocks of cinema itself. Their work often features:

• Abstraction: A focus on graphic elements like shape, color, pattern, and light, often completely divorced from a recognizable reality.
• Materiality of Film: Experimentation with the physical film strip itself, including techniques like scratching, painting on celluloid, deliberate degradation, and complex optical printing.
• Rhythm and Flicker: Using editing and frame rates to create a powerful sense of visual rhythm, often employing ‘flicker film’ techniques that alternate rapidly between light and dark frames.
• Structuralism: A rigorous, often mathematical approach to filmmaking, where the structure or process of the film’s creation becomes its primary subject.

This current of experimental work represents a vital, though often less visible, part of Mexico’s cinematic culture. It is kept alive by a dedicated community of artists, independent film labs, and specialized festivals that champion a vision of cinema as a radical and transformative visual art form.