Film festival honors build momentum for ‘Truly Texas Mexican’ documentary

HOUSTON, TX — (EINPresswire) — The documentary feature film, “Truly Texas Mexican,” is garnering acclaim and awards at international film festivals, and is scheduled to start video streaming in March.

“We’re thrilled at all the film festival honors,” says Adán Medrano, the writer and executive producer of the 90-minute film about the Native American roots of Texas Mexican food.

This week the film was named “Official Selection” by the Mallorca, Spain, international film festival, “FilmsInFest,” and previously the film received the same honor from the Montreal Independent Film Festival. Directed by the Uruguayan director, Aníbal Capoano, “Truly Texas Mexican” was nominated for “Best Picture” at the 25th Anniversary of the Red Nation Film Festival in Los Angeles.

Last week the film won “Best US Documentary Feature” at the New York Independent Cinema Awards.

The production team is a Latin America and Texas, USA collaboration. Along with the director, the cinematographer Gabriel Bendahan is also from Uruguay while Medrano and the producer, Virginia Díaz-Laughlin are both from Texas. “The story of indigenous Texas people resonates with the stories of indigenous peoples throughout the Americas, from north to south,” says Capoano about the film that is based on Medrano’s book by the same title, “Truly Texas Mexican: A Native Culinary Heritage In Recipes.”

Styled as a road movie of discovery, the film weaves through Texas cities, naming the racism that erased Native American history and celebrating the food that kept alive the community’s living memory and heritage.

“Women led the cultural resistance against colonization,” says producer Virginia Diaz-Laughlin. “They did so by cooking foods like nopalitos, deer, mesquite, and tortillas. Over time and during conquest, they sustained Native American memory and identity.”

The festival circuit concludes for the documentary just before it is to be distributed on video streaming services and on local PBS stations. For the next three months the film will continue on the festival circuit, and praise for the cinematography and research has been mounting.

Los Angeles author and film critic Chon Noriega, who is also the Director of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, says “The film is very soulful–the kind of story missing from all the cooking documentaries and series out there, except for the occasional Latino segment from Anthony Bourdain, RIP.”

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