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WHERE IS JUAN MOCTEZUMA?

By Alaric ROCHA

Art - Culture - Production 2024

A mockumentary that investigates the life of the (fake) legendary 70s Mexican horror film auteur, Juan F. Moctezuma II, who fought to establish himself in the world of film to win the heart of his true love, but in the end the horror of his movies gets the best of him.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Art - Culture, Horror, First film
- Countries
- USA, MEXICO
- Languages
- SPANISH, ENGLISH-UNITED STATES
- Budget
- 0.3 - 0.6 M$
- Duration
- 90 mn
- Director(s)
- Alaric ROCHA
- Synopsis
- This “documentary” looks at the films of Mexican director Juan F. Moctezuma II. The 60s – 80s were a low point in quality and quantity for Mexican cinema, except for Moctezuma’s work which paved the way for Guillermo del Toro, Cuarón, Iñárritu, and others. Juan Francisco Moctezuma II was poised to be the auteur director that Mexico yearned for in the 70s. Instead, he disappeared, midway through filming his last known film, 1000 Paths of Death (1977). Moctezuma and the film were championed by producer Roger Corman, known for launching the careers of great filmmakers and actors like Francis Ford Coppola, and Martin Scorsese. So why would Moctezuma abandon his dream and a mentor who had made so many famous?!
  
  1000 Paths was recently uncovered launching this documentary. Through interviews with Mexican and horror film directors, film scholars, and people who knew Moctezuma we learn that Moctezuma’s muse and ultimately his downfall was his childhood sweetheart, Lisandra Tena, who starred in his second film, Una mujer sin precio/A Priceless Woman (1961).