Nobody is Innocent. Shit Saturday

Time, place and subculture converge in punk anthems of defiance on the outskirts of a big city. Russian premiere as part of the Collective Cinema Festival.

Nadie es inocente
1986, Sarah Minter

Mexico
57 minutes, Spanish with Russian subtitles

Documentary

Sábado de mierda
1988, Gregorio Rocha

Mexico
25 minutes, Spanish with Russian subtitles

Starring: Pablo Podrida, Kara, Ojitos, Rafa Punk

“The world is rotten, and so am I,” shouts one of the teenagers in chains and leather jackets, jumping on the bonnets of rusty cars. It’s hard to disagree, considering the reality these kids face: the vast outskirts of Mexico City, known as Nezahualcóyotl (or simply Neza), resemble a landfill rather than a residential area. The gang, calling themselves El Mierdas Punk, strive to splash this filth onto the respectable centre of the metropolis, if only through their own appearance.

Stills from Nobody is Innocent, 1986, Shit Saturday, 1988

Taken together, these two films make it possible to reconstruct a remarkable encounter: between two artists intent on forging an independent cinema and a group of impoverished kids facing down a world with no place for them.

—Will Noah, The Criterion Current

In 1982, young filmmakers Sara Minter and Gregorio Rocha called out a plumber, and two young punks, clanking with metal, turned up. Minter and Rocha grabbed their cameras and followed their new acquaintances into their natural habitat. They spent years there, documenting the lives of the Neza punks and, in return, letting them into their creative world. The unlikely collaboration gave life to these two unique films.