The Forgotten Village
May 20, 2012
(Herbert Kline, United States, 1941, 35mm, 67 min)
New 35mm print!
Westernization vs. Mexican village: not the subject matter you may expect from a 1941 documentary. But in directing The Forgotten Village, which has been called a work of “ethnofiction,” Herbert Kline chose perhaps the greatest screenwriter for the job: John Steinbeck. Working with an entirely nonprofessional cast, Kline brought Western audiences a dramatized account of a Mexican hamlet beset with typhoid fever. One family’s son, Juan Diego, tries to persuade the village to accept the aid of modern medicine, and in the conflict that unfolds, the lifestyles of the villagers are explored with groundbreaking dignity and detail. The film’s release in 1940—the year that kicked off decades of intensive reforms in Mexico—makes it a landmark of history.
“Integrity is the distinctive quality that lends authority to this handsome picture.” – The New York Times, 1941