ADDICTED TO SOLITUDE
Denmark 1999 | 35 Min. | 35 mm, engl. OF

A portrait of the Zapotec women of Juchitán in Oaxaca, Mexico. The films shows them in all their brightly coloured, opinionated glory as they run their own businesses, embroider their signature fiery blossoms on clothing, and comment with angry humour on articles in the foreign press that flippantly and inaccurately depict them as a promiscuous matriarchy. The people interviewed in this film share a strong work ethic and fierce independent streak rooted in Zapotec culture. These qualities have resulted not only in powerful women, but also in the region’s progressive politics, manifested in their unusual tolerance of homosexuality. Their lives may be hard and maintaining Zapotec culture and language may be an on-going battle, but it’s plain that not one of these individuals – man, woman, young, old, gay or straight would willingly change places with anyone in the first world.