Directed by Antonio Márquez, Max Dickter
DRAMA
This film is available from November 27-30, 2020. To watch or vote for this film please click on the orange “TICKETS” button below and purchase a ticket for BLOCK 2.
Synopsis
A young Latino man must face the dark realities of his rural community, and a mysterious supernatural force as he sets out to hunt a deadly mountain lion in this Southwestern gothic tale.
Antonio Márquez is native to Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado where his family has practiced art and agriculture for generations. This is the 5th short film he has written as a co-founder of JunkYard Nights, the previous being the multiple award-winning “Alivestock.” He has done artist residencies in Mexico City, and is a member of the Outside Circle, a group of practicing cowboy Musicians and Storytellers. He lives in the village of Placitas, NM with his partner, their newborn son, cats, dogs, chickens, wild horses and countless ghosts.
Max Dickter is a founder of the production company JunkYard Nights. Born and raised in New Mexico, he’s been making films since his early teens. He studied theatre and worked as an actor in New York City while traveling back to NM to continue telling stories rooted in the Southwest. Max currently resides in London, UK, where he is developing projects in both theatre, and film with JunkYard Nights.
“Más Sabe El Diablo/The Devil Knows More” was born out of a bad horse-riding accident and the need to tell another story with my JunkYard Nights co-founders Max Dickter and Jordan Hoffman. Written while I was bedridden with a broken leg from getting bucked off a horse, this “Proof of Concept” short takes characters and themes from an intended feature-length film, and re-positions them with a new set of circumstances.
Our attempt was to explore a part of the world and a culture rarely seen on film: the rural Latinx/Chicanx /Mestizx people of Northern New Mexico/Southern Colorado attempting to hold on to an agricultural lifestyle while the pressures of moving to urban centers, drug abuse, and familial drama threaten to destroy and erase it. We brought these very real and familiar contemporary threats together with a folkloric menace that is very specific to this part of the world and my specific Nuevo Mexicano people; the Mestizx and Indigenous populations that have been here for generations upon generations. As a result, “Más Sabe El Diablo/The Devil Knows More” emerged as a Southwestern-Gothic tale that leaves the door open for further cinematic stories to be told and shared from this part of the world and its gente.
-Antonio Márquez
