Description: In Mexico, on the first days of November, the dead come to visit. They are received with respect and affection and given offerings of their favorite food and flowers. Tombstones are washed and decorated. Homemade altars are piled with fruit, candles, bread, and pictures of family members who have passed into the next world. Parades, music and plays bring people together to laugh and mourn. For one time in the year, the cemetery becomes a place of life and color, bedecked wth flowers, sparkling with candles, and filled with people who keep vigil beside their loved ones. In a rich mosaic of festive and warmly intimate scenes, LA OFRENDA takes a non-traditional look at the Mexican tradition of the Days of the Dead, evoking the familiar, ironic, sometimes humorous nature of Mexican and Mexican-American attitudes toward death. Moving from ancient Indian temples to a small Mexican village to San Francisco and Mexico City, the film explores the pre-Hispanic roots and fascinating modern variations of this colorful and delightfully macabre observance. Gently touching upon the enduring paradoxes of a tradition that celebrates living by cultivating an awareness of death, LA OFRENDA captures the intensity and plenitude of the Mexican soul.
