Paulina

In the mid-fifties, the 8-year-old Mexican girl Paulina is given to the mayor by her parents, in exchange for a small piece of farmland. The mayor adds the girl to his household. A few years later, she manages to escape and to start a new life in Mexico-City as a maid of well-to-do Mexican and American families. One of the families she worked for was that of the later filmmaker Vicky Funari. Forty years later, both women return to Paulina‘s native village. Funari reconstructs her central figure‘s life by means of documentary footage, witness accounts and interview excerpts by and with Paulina, her family members and acquaintances. Funari also incorporates dramatised scenes, in which popular Mexican actresses re-enact episodes from Paulina‘s life. Central themes in Funari‘s work are issues regarding gender and identity. In her most recent, experimental video film SKIN-ES-THE-SI-A, for example, Funari confrontationally examines various notions concerning the female body. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)