The Los Angeles County Museum of Art is holding a special film series featuring the work of young female filmmakers from Mexico on May 10-11. The series was organized with AMBULANTE, a non-profit film organization founded in 2005 by actors Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal and Pablo Cruz.

AMBULANTE supports and promotes documentary film as a means for social justice. The program includes a great selection of films and many of the directors will be in conversation after screenings. Below find descriptions of the films (from the LACMA site) playing. You can get more information and tickets here.

El General (The General) – Natalia Almada

El General tells the story of one of Mexico’s most controversial figures, Plutarco Elias Calles — alternately known as “The General,” “Nun-Burner” and “The Dictator” — as told by director Natalie Almada, his granddaughter. The film is both a journey into Almada’s family history, and an intimate portrait of Mexico a century after the Revolution of 1910, touching on the socio-economic injustice that has prevailed for the duration.

Intimidades de Shakespeare y Victor Hugo (Shakespeare and Victor Hugo’s Intimacies) – Yulene Olaizola

The lodging house owned by Rosa Carbajal at the corner of Shakespeare and Victor Hugo streets in Mexico City hides an intimate and passionate story. Twenty years ago, Rosa met Jorge Riosse, a charismatic young tenant who became her closest friend. But after his sudden death, a darker portrait emerged. The film is a profound sketch of two lonely characters whose lives become strongly and strangely entwined.

El lugar mas pequeno (The Tiniest Place) – Tatiana Huezo

Five families walk through the jungles of El Salvador for several days; they arrive in their village to find nothing left. The characters– farm laborers from a guerrilla town — struggle to resume living amidst the nightmares and wounds inflicted by civil war. They begin to organize themselves, collecting the remains of the dead, sowing the soil and looking after their animals. Forced to give up their weapons, they commit to the memory of what has happened.

Mi Vida Dentro (My Life Inside) – Lucia Gaja

Mi Vida Dentro tells the story of Rosa, who, at the age of 17, migrated illegally from Mexico to Austin, Texas. In January 2003, she was detained for suspected murder, and then put on trial more than eighteen months later. The film provides powerful insight into the life of Mexican immigrants in the United States through one woman’s struggles in the judicial system.