Experimental USA 2016 English 0:08:06
Susto is a cultural disease of chronic fear. This film addresses the disease through the voice of a female, and her personal account of being stalked by a monster. The film explores various environments where this entity has haunted, through day, night, seasons, and years. Time is not something linear in this film, but shifts through past, memory, and present simultaneously. They say the only way to cure susto is to face the origin of your fears, but what if the truth is far more horrifying than the story?
As an indigenous woman of Mexican, Yaqui, and Navajo ancestry, much of her work plays off this unique cultural mix to interrogate how the modern world relates to notions of past, present, and future selves. How do ancienttraditions revered by marginalized peoples fit into a society that sought to destroy them? What role can media and art play in carrying those traditions into modern society? Taking many of the indigenous concepts, teachings, and stories she has learned throughout her life, and finding ways to insert them into an audio and visual realm while still maintaining a balance between sacred storytelling, and the personal stories of others and herself.