Friends, Family & The War on Drugs

Gian Cassini and Face2Face host David Peck talk about his new film Comala, friendship and family, truth and ambiguity, “the war on drugs”, violence and responsibility, and how intimate stories can be universal.

Trailer

Synopsis:

Director Gian Cassini grew up the only child of a single mother in Monterrey, Mexico. His father, with whom he had only intermittent contact, had left when he was a child and started a parallel family, giving Gian a brother and sister that he came to know as he got older. In Comala, the filmmaker’s powerful and daring debut documentary, Cassini puts his magnifying glass to the ground as he embarks on an intimate true-crime odyssey that criss-crosses Mexico, stops over in Cuba, and settles in San Antonio, Texas.

One family member at a time, Cassini puts together the puzzle pieces that form an image of his late father — El Jimmy, a small-time hitman and drug trafficker in Tijuana — allowing him, and the rest of his family, to make sense of the man that made them who they are.

Comala, named after the town where Juan Rulfo’s landmark 1955 novel Pedro Páramo takes place, bears witness to one family’s quest for personal truth, a journey that along the way uncovers a network of men stuck within deeply-rooted patterns of machismo; victims of their own intergenerational trauma. Cassini unpacks this web of toxic masculinity that has informed his own life and addresses the pain of abandonment head on. In searching for the root of his own family’s heartbreak, Cassini’s story offers unprecedented access into the personal ramifications of Mexico’s War on Drugs and gives voice to the countless women and children who are left behind by the vicious cycles of violence, drug abuse, and internalized misogyny at its core.

About Gian:

Gian Cassini is a documentary filmmaker based in Monterrey, Mexico. He is a writer, editor, producer, and director of features, short films, and television series. He has participated in different filmmaking programs including the IDFA Academy, DocMontevideo, Impulso Morelia, and the Logan NonFiction Program. Comala marks his debut feature.

Image Copyright and Credit: IMAGYX Entertainment and Gian Cassini.

F2F Music and Image Copyright: David Peck and Face2Face. Used with permission.

For more information about David Peck’s podcasting, writing and public speaking please visit his site here.

With thanks to Josh Snethlage and Mixed Media Sound.

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