Maletilla opened the the day for me Thursday.  It is director Victoria Clay-Mendoza’s examination of the motivations behind Spanish bull fighters.  The director’s father left his job as an American executive for Pepsi at 38 to become a matador in Mexico.  In her quest to learn more about his motivations she spends 4 years following young bull fighters or Terrero’s in Spain.  The boys, many as young as 7, come from modest homes in small villages to attend bull fighting school.  Here they risk their lives to learn the art of bull fighting. 

What starts as a discovery mission becomes a romantic celebration of the young Torerros.  Clay-Mendoza makes no attempt at hiding her sexual curiosity for the aspiring matadors.  The Spanish culture has never hidden its comfort with intimacy and celebration and this movie is no exception. The artful poses of these young men, confident in their stance as bull’s charge them, is captured in hand recorded shots from rural Spanish bull rings.

Maletilla is for the most part observational but the director’s questions do dig into the boys.  At one point she asks one “What would you do if it wasn’t bullfighting.” After a very long pause the boy says “bullfighting.”  Most of the commentary on the sport comes from the boy’s manager and a retired bull fighter.  They both talk about the glory of being carried by the crowd after a fight, a scene soon shown in the movie. Maletilla is a series of unanswered questions but the sensuality of the story and the depiction of the Spanish art form are enough to make that journey satisfying. 

Sons of Cuba

It’s no secret that Cuba is a world leader in boxing and Sons of Cuba sets out to catalog their grooming process.  Not dissimilar to Maletilla it is a story of young Cuban boys and their commitment to their country through boxing. 10 year old boys stay at modest boxing training facilities 5 nights a week with training beginning at 4:30 every morning.  The boys are constantly reminded they are working for their country and that sacrifice is necessary for success.  The story watches the Havana Boxing Academy team as they train for the National Championships with relentless focus.  Cataloging several of the boy’s home life and their progress toward the championship- this documentary is no Mighty Ducks fairy tale.  The poverty in Cuba is oppressive and the demands of becoming a young boxer are extreme. The boys dream of representing Cuba in the Olympics and train with convincing passion.

Director Andrew Lang presents an exquisitely photographed story that doesn’t shy from showing the realities of the socialist regime.  The boys are fighting for the fatherland but their hearts are not quite that of soliders, these young boys have the kind of familial problems and internal battles that are just as challenging as their sport.  Lang’s fresh edit of the film “We finished it 3 days ago” he said before the movie started, is tight and promises a perfect arc as it gets polished. Successful with Full Frame’s audience, the audience audibly cheered as the story unfolded and cried bravo as the movie ended. 

Young men with focus like old master’s was the theme of the day and both these movies advance on the traditional trappings of the hero’s journey- carving a complexity and detail that couldn’t be found in fiction. The lack of cliche or irony in either film is a welcome surprise and a wonderful way to begin the festival. 

Full Frame will run all weekend.