Sarah Minter

Born in Puebla, Mexico, in 1953, the video art pioneer Sarah Minter produced 8mm and 16mm films, video installations, and documentaries. Marked by formal experimentation and the search for a language intrinsic to video, her pieces explored the intersections of the political, the body, and the city. Minter started her career in theater in the early 1970s, when she participated in the experimental group Ergónico, based in Mexico City and led by the Argentine director Juan Carlos Uviedo (1930–2000). In 1980 Minter realized her first Super 8 movie, Adagio. In the same year she had her first contact with video and became attracted to the independence afforded by the medium, which did not require the expensive financing and elaborate structure demanded by cinema at a time when opportunities for moviemakers in Mexico were few. In Nadie es inocente (No one is innocent, 1985–87), Minter used video to document the life of punk youth living in the impoverished setting of Nezahualcóyotl, on the outskirts of Mexico City. Youth rebelliousness, economic instability, and inadequate political representation are themes of her Alma punk (Punk soul; 1992). Minter revisited the protagonists of her earlier piece in Nadie es inocente: 20 años después (No one is innocent: 20 years later, 2010).