Death Day

The enormous amont of film shot by Eisenstein in Mexico was never edited or completed. However it provided footage for works edited by others, of which this is one. Death Day is a record of a curious Mexican holiday taken from the Aztec feast for the dead. For one day, death rules supreme in the form of candy skulls, death toys, processions of skeletons, and funereal masks; yet it also seems strangely, almost benevolently, integrated into life, the fear of it weakened by mockery and familiarity. (Amos Vogel)