Mexican Jail Footage1980

Images from 1968 events combined with 1980 voice recollections. Paranoid surreptitious camera records daily events and posturing of 25 gringos jailed without charge-and fellow Mexican prisoners-prior to the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. Was there collusion behind this? We were never told but this was at a height of national polarization, when American tourists in Mexico were shocked to find more of the youths they thought they'd left behind – and when Mexican Government was administering national preening in its own paranoiac anticipation of the international Olympics exposure six months later. The soundtrack narration's culled from a much longer account I wrote of the event: it is told as directly as I could tell it.

MEXICAN JAIL FOOTAGE reminds me of standing by the tracks and watching a train go by – it is so strong, it lasts so long, and it is over so quickly. – Tom Whiteside NORTH CAROLINA ANVIL