Circo

"I'm telling you..."

In his introduction prior to the screening of his engaging documentary 'Circo', director Aaron Schock hoped that, on this rainy grey London day, his Mexican examination of familial relationships in an extraordinary environment would help to warm us up.
It is more than just a warming view of beautiful Mexican scenery and a fascinating cultural institution, delving into the life of a struggling rural circus and coming across a family straining at the seams.  Schock explained in his Q&A that his reason for travelling to rural Mexico to, originally, make a documentary about corn farmers was that he felt that American documentaries about Mexicans "always start at the border and work up".  On his journey he came across the Ponce family and their Circo Mexico and decided that these were the people to film: "A family trying to make a go of it in Mexico".

Filmed over a period of 21 months involving eight visits to the family Schock was granted real Access All Areas taking in, not only the main protagonists - ringmaster Tino, his wife Ivonne and their four children - but in all 13 "named characters", mainly from the Ponce clan.  Ivonne, not from a circus background, worries about the life that her children are leading and we are witness to a number of husband-wife discussions about this subject as well as Ivonne's financial concerns.  In an early tense exchange she brings up how much money her father-in-law makes from her husband and children - and on a number of following occasions we are treated to footage of Don Gilberto counting the day's takings.
Schock discussed his editorial choices in his Q&A and his realisation during filming that he "couldn't see this as just a child labour thing" which he'd clearly considered would most likely be one of the major themes of the documentary.  Instead he utilises sub-plots from the lives of Tino's niece and brother - Naydelin heading off to kindergarten illuminating the lack of traditional education for Tino's own children and Tacho's attempted relationship with a 'settled' woman which ends in the pair of them returning to the circus - to reflect on Tino's immediate family.
The film is rife with tenderness which Schock captures with a beautiful intimacy.  The participants are open and honest and the children provide many moments of wonderful humour (Cascaras' many girlfriends and a shot of all the young girls of the extended family practising contortions in the yard at their great grandmother's house raised more than a few titters).  The circus itself, although more than a little worn around the edges, is a bleakly beautiful setting and Schock's camera work does justice to both the big top and the rolling Mexican scenery.

An engaging, intimate and scenic examination of familial relationships in an extraordinary environment - 8/10