The sole feature-length work from tv and short-subject documentarian Aaron Schock* is a paradigm of fly-on-a-wall non-fiction filmmaking. With an unusual topic (one-ring family circus working out-of-the-way towns in rural Mexico); complicated relationships (Grandpa holding all the finances in his pocket, parents & kids the main labor force outside and inside the Big Top); backstory in a century of circus lineage, now four brothers running family circuses of their own; menagerie of wild animals no longer seen/accepted in North of the border shows; ceaseless one-night stops; performers taking off to try ‘normal’ life only to return like addicts to old ways. There’s something elemental & touching in following the bonds and discipline of this lifestyle. And Schock’s found just the right family to follow in Circo Mexico’s Tino Ponce & family. Grandpa’s a bit of a shit controlling the finances, but there’s real pleasure in watching this fit & handsome new generation pick up on the family traditions/obligations, work ethic, and specialty acts. A daredevil cousin returns to ply his star turn, a Circle-of-Death motorcycle act, but far better are the simpler feats of contortion and slack wire routines the Ponce kids (pre-to-late teens) put on to enthusiastic locals not yet jaded by internet connections. You can really imagine what running off to join the circus might mean to the little day-and-date locales they stop at. Hard to see many more years of this when even the smallest town gets up to internet speed. A fact that only adds poignancy to a waning profession and this lovely film.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: Exceptional Mexican-flavored score from Calexico.
DOUBLE-BILL: Disney’s original DUMBO/’41 remains the one-ring circus pic of your dreams. (Avoid Tim Burton’s 2019 live-action misfire.) OR: *Schock’s award-winning 40" short, LA LAGUNA/’16 (not seen here) about a tween-to-teen Rainforest Mayan boy.
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