Natalia Almada

Natalia Almada is a Mexican-American photographer and filmmaker. Her work as a filmmaker focuses on Mexican history, politics, and culture in insightful and poetic films that push the boundaries of how the documentary form addresses social issues. Her films include "Everything Else (Todo lo demás)", El Velador (2011), El General (2009), All Water Has a Perfect Memory (2001), and Al Otro Lado (2005), and her work has appeared at numerous national and international venues, including the Museum of Modern Art, the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum, the Munich International Film Festival, and the Cannes Directors' Fortnight. and the first Latina filmmaker to win the award.

Early life and education Natalia Almada was born and raised in Sinaloa, and later moved to Chicago alongside her Mexican father and American mother. Almada is the great-granddaughter of Plutarco Elías Calles, the very controversial former President of Mexico, who would eventually serve as the subject of one of her films (El General). Since the age of 12, she has been interested in capturing people's lives and stories through a camera, which is what eventually lead her to want to pursue a career in film. Her outlook as a Mexican-American female invites a wide range of audiences to understand social justice issues from a unique perspective in which the director is able to relate to the people in her films from an unbiased viewpoint. Almada eliminates the criminality from issues such as dictatorship and drug trafficking by looking at the issues from a lens focused on basic human needs, and the economic and political barriers that interfere.

Her films are largely influenced by her Mexican heritage, and the stories that have come to her from her experiences living in Sinaloa, as well as the stories told to her by her family. A correlation can be seen between the expansion of the drug war and the growing extravagance and quantity of Mausoleums in Martin's view; "the 'progress' of the cemetery mirrored the violence that was spiraling out of control."

El General (2009) El General tells the story of Almada's great-grandfather, Plutarco Elías Calles, from the perspective of her grandmother. The documentary is made up of voice-recordings of Almada's grandmother, who originally took the recordings with the hopes of writing a book. The story is juxtaposed with traditional Mexican corrido music, which has historically been used for narrative purposes, however in this case, the upbeat music is used in irony to the topics captured on film. All Water has a Perfect Memory is an experimental documentary, and first of Almada's films to be publicized.

Reception and reviews Rotten TomatoesIMDbMetacriticEl Velador (2011)89%6.6/1082%El General (2009) –7.4/10 –Al Otro Lado (2005)75%7/1066%All Water has a Perfect Memory (2001) –6.9/10 –