Sergei Eisenstein, 1931/1979, 85 min.
Hollywood was never a natural home to Eisenstein, and with several projects rejected, it took little to persuade him to follow Upton Sinclair south to create a film celebrating Mexico’s culture, history, and revolution. The documentary – a hugely ambitious project ranging from ancient Mayan civilization to the Spanish invasion to the 1930s – ran out of funds and was abandoned. The unedited material remained in Sinclair’s hands in the United States, and was carefully assembled into this version of ¡Que viva México! in 1979. The result is one of the most beautiful documentaries ever made.