Eisenstein’s Mexican Film: Episodes for Study (1955): cast, story & where to watch

Released in 1955, Eisenstein’s Mexican Film: Episodes for Study is a documentary film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, running about 228 minutes.

What it’s about. "Eisenstein journeyed to Mexico in late 1930 to begin shooting a film. With backing provided by Upton and Mary Craig Sinclair, the great Soviet auteur planned to make an epoch-spanning pageant of Mexico’s political history and cultural iconography, moving from the pre-Columbian era through colonization and, finally, revolution ... with the project running over budget the film was shut down. Sinclair eventually deposited the film materials at MoMA in 1953, at which point the scholar Jay Leyda assembled and annotated the shots, ordering them according to the filmmaker’s plans and presenting the images just as they had been shot, unedited ... here one is given the opportunity to attend to Eisenstein in an entirely different way, and aspects that might otherwise be overshadowed come to the fore: the way he works with nonprofessional actors, for example, or the striking mise-en-scène." - MoMA

Where to watch. Streaming options change often. See the full, country-by-country breakdown on our where to watch Eisenstein’s Mexican Film: Episodes for Study page.

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