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.
El Mar La Mar has generally received very positive reviews.
Review of El Mar La Mar (2017)
By Wendy Ide (1,500) for Observer (UK) (2,398) on 05 Aug 2018
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Review of El Mar La Mar (2017)
By Ben Kenigsberg (863) for New York Times (5,786) on 22 Feb 2018
Review of El Mar La Mar (2017)
Review of El Mar La Mar (2017)
By Glenn Heath Jr. (311) for Little White Lies (3,136) on 03 Oct 2018
Review of El Mar La Mar (2017)
By Cath Clarke (570) for Guardian (4,584) on 01 Aug 2018
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El Mar La Mar was released in 2017 and has generally received very positive reviews.
Online reviewers have written 6 reviews, giving El Mar La Mar (2017) an average rating of 76%.
With a score of 76%, El Mar La Mar is above the average Cinafilm score for movies made in 2017, which stands at 59%.
Other movies from 2017 with similar scores include films like Spider-Man: Homecoming, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Phantom Thread.
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