Por Los Camiones del Sur - On Southern Buses

ON SOUTHERN BUSES - A BALLAD OF THE SECOND CLASS

Synopsis

In the documentary “ON SOUTHERN BUSES” the stories of six musicians meander along curvy federal roads through the breathtaking scenery of southern Mexico. The protagonists do not perform in the spotlight of big stages but earn their living with guitars and accordions in the narrow aisles of country buses. Dripping with sweat, they drown out geriatric motors while slipping through the tightening net of inspectors and controls. Beyond the roadside ditches, they philosophize about the qualities of fighting cocks, tout nutritional supplements or dress up inside filthy backstage rooms of Acapulco nightclubs while dreaming of their leap to stardom.

Director

Sven Kirschlager was born in Detmold in 1981 and studied Latin American Studies and Ethnomusicology at Freie Universität Berlin. He wrote his PhD thesis about travelling musicians on board rural Mexican buses and conducted four extended field studies in southern Mexico, meeting and accompanying the later protagonists of his documentary during work and everyday life. POR LOS CAMIONES DEL SUR is his first film.

Sirio Magnabosco (37), born in Verona - Italy, studied photography in Milan and attended film school in Ferrara before moving to Berlin. His photographic work has been exhibited in Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Spain, New York, Tokyo and published on magazines like The NY Times, Vanity Fair, Wired and GQ. Since 2013 he has been shooting both independent and commercial short films and in 2017 co-directed his first feature documentary: POR LOS CAMIONES DEL SUR.

Crew

Screenplay - Sven Kirschlager

Producer - Studio Kalliope, Maria Kling

Director - Sven Kirschlager

Co-Director - Sirio Magnabosco

Director of Photography - Sirio Magnabosco

Sound - Bernat Fortiana

Editor - Dalia Castel

Animation - Xaver Xylophon

Sound Design - Julian Cropp

Music - Hexiquio Hernández Muñoz

Music - Salvador Hernández Muñoz

Music - Jesús García Cruz

Music - Julio García Galeana

Music - Lorenzo Villanueva Nicacio

Music - Gabriel Villanueva Noyola

Details

Running Time - 93 mins

Shooting Format - Digital HD Color 23,98 fps

Screening Format - DCP, BluRay, DVD, .mov, mp4 (HD), Digital HD Color 23,98 fps

Aspect Ratio - 2,44:1

Sound - 5.1 & Stereo

Awards + Festivals

41st MONTREAL WORLD FILM FESTIVAL (Documentaries of the World Section, Canada) AUGUST 24, 2017
NORTH CAROLINA FILM AWARD (Competition, North Carolina, USA) NOVEMBER 16, 2017
NEAR NAZARETH FESTIVAL (Official Selection, Israel) DECEMBER 13, 2017
5th SNOWDANCE INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL (Official Selection, Landsberg am Lech, Germany) JANUARY 27, 2018
*BIG IMP FOR BEST FEATURE FILM* 3rd INDIE-LINCS INT'L FILM FESTIVAL (Official Selection, Lincoln, UK) MARCH 17, 2018
ETHONGRAFILM PARIS (Official Selection, Paris, France) APRIL 3, 2018