About this Event
6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Doors open at 5:30 p.m.
Film: In Spanish with English subtitles, 62-minutes, 2018
Q&A: Spanish with English audio interpretation accessible via personal headphones & smartphone.
Join us for a film screening and Chicago debut of Drown Among the Dead by Mexican artist Rubén Gutiérrez — inaugural Artist-in-Residence of the Lit & Luz Festival and the National Museum of Mexican Art.
In the artist’s words, “I am interested in making films that operate as symbolic acts of resistance, that provoke reflections on possible ways to inhabit the world, that speak about the control mechanisms to which we are subjected and about our own mental prisons. My intention is to promote a reflection about what happens outside of the cinematic canvas.” In Drown Among the Dead, an existential drama set in the desert, the audience will be presented with reflections on solitude, emptiness, love, absurdity, fear of death and the fragility of human passions.
Museum doors open at 5:30 p.m. with the film presentation beginning promptly at 6:05 p.m. A bar and concession stand will be available for attendees sponsored by Marz Brewery and S.A.C.R.E.D. Mezcal.
After the screening, Gutiérrez will be joined by Alivé Piliado, Curatorial Associate at the National Museum of Mexican Art, and Esteban King, Lit & Luz Artistic Director, for a conversation on the film’s themes, production, and creative direction. This Q&A will be in Spanish with English audio interpretation provided by Interprenet. The interpretation will be accessible with the audience's personal headphones and cell phone using the provided token through the Interprenet app.
Film Synopsis: Without us knowing how or for how long he has been there, an old comedian lies buried up to his neck in the middle of a desert. A strange woman bearing a nail-bat finds him and intends to K*ll him. To save himself, the prisoner lures her with mysterious words, distracting her with stories of a mythical threshold that holds the absolute truth. She is trapped by the words as she struggles with her own existential conflicts in a world where the boundaries between truth, lies, reality, and imagination are blurry. This bizarre situation detonates a monologue about solitude, emptiness, love, absurdity, fear of death and the fragility of human passions.
Presented by the Lit & Luz Festival and the National Museum of Mexican Art co-sponsored by Marz Brewery, S.A.C.R.E.D. Mezcal, and Interprenet
Pierdete entre los muertosProyección de la película seguida de un conversatorio con el artista y director Rubén Gutiérrez
El Festival Lit & Luz y el Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano le invitan a una proyección especial de la película Pierdete entre los muertos, un drama existencial del director y artista mexicano Rubén Gutiérrez.
En palabras del director: “Me interesa realizar películas que funcionen como actos simbólicos de resistencia, que provoquen reflexiones sobre posibles formas de habitar el mundo y que aborden los mecanismos de control a los que estamos sometidos, así como nuestras propias prisiones mentales. Mi intención es fomentar una reflexión sobre lo que sucede fuera del lienzo cinematográfico. El resultado final es una suerte de ficción singular que se apropia de fragmentos de otros discursos para invitar al espectador a recordar”.
Las puertas del museo se abrirán a las 5:30 p.m. y la presentación de la película comenzará a las 6:05 p. m. Los asistentes dispondrán de servicio de bar y venta de aperitivos, gracias al patrocinio de Marz Brewery y mezcal S.A.C.R.E.D.
Después de la proyección, Gutiérrez conversará con Alivé Piliado, Curadora Asociada del Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano, y Esteban King, Director Artístico del Festival Lit & Luz, sobre los temas, la producción y la dirección creativa de la película.
Sinopsis de la película: Sin saber cómo ni desde cuándo, un viejo comediante yace enterrado hasta el cuello en medio de un desierto. Una mujer extraña, armada con un bate con clavos, lo encuentra e intenta matarlo. Para salvarse, el prisionero la atrae con palabras misteriosas y la distrae relatando historias sobre un umbral mítico que guarda la verdad absoluta. Ella queda cautivada por las palabras mientras lucha con sus propios conflictos existenciales en un mundo donde los límites entre verdad, mentira, realidad e imaginación se desdibujan. Esta situación insólita desencadena un monólogo sobre la soledad, el vacío, el amor, el absurdo, el miedo a la muerte y la fragilidad de las pasiones humanas.
Presentado por el Festival Lit & Luz y el Museo Nacional de Arte Mexicano, con el copatrocinio de Marz Brewery, mezcal S.A.C.R.E.D., y Interprenet.
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The 13th annual Lit & Luz Festival of Language, Literature, and Art—as featured in, WBEZ’s Reset with Sasha-Ann Simons, Chicago Review of Books, Block Club Chicago, and more—takes place November 8 to November 14, 2026. Lit & Luz is a one-of-a-kind, cross-cultural and multilingual festival, bringing together renowned writers, visual artists, performers, and musicians from Mexico and Chicago for a week-long series of public programming at venues throughout Chicago.
Organized this year under the theme of “Edge/Borde” artists and writers will gather to present their work with performances, artist talks, writing workshops, poetry readings and panel discussions to consider the complexities of official borders, as well as the ways in which soft and hard edges are constructed within cities and regions—and within artistic practices themselves—through language, culture, identity, and policy
To learn more, visit litluz.org
Event venue & nearby stays
National Museum of Mexican Art, 1852 West 19th Street, Chicago, United States
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