This documentary is set the region of la selva negra (“The Black Jungle”), in southern Mexico, which is named after the thick fog that is common there.  Carmen lives modestly, but in peace, on the plot that her husband paid for with his life, fighting for a landless farmers’ movement. Juan, although a shaman, suffers from a hernia that his incantations cannot treat, and falls under the spell of a pyramid-scheme-marketed nutritional supplement. This is ‘the modern jungle’ that appears before our unbelieving eyes. A portrait of globalization, The Modern Jungle documents the struggles and encounters of the local characters with outside forces: from capitalism and commodity fetish, to the culture of cinema, and the directors of this film. 

Bloomington, IN: Oct. 27 at IU Cinema.