Cassandro with short film
Date: October 9, 2024
Time: 7:00 PM
Address: Mandela Auditorium
Dir. by Roger Ross Williams. Mexico-USA. 2024. 107 minutes. Spanish with English subtitles. Pragda series.
Based on the true story of Saúl Armendáriz, a gay amateur wrestler from El Paso who rises to international stardom after he creates the character Cassandro, the “Liberace of Lucha Libre.” In the process, he upends not just the macho wrestling world, but also his own life.
Directed by Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams, the film follows Saúl as he plugs away on the amateur circuit, in gaudy, neon-lit dives just across the border, but with his drab grey costume and his unprepossessing name – El Topo (or the Mole) – he’s not making much progress. But Saúl reinvents himself as the flamboyantly campy character of Cassandro. His new alter ego is an “exótico,” a wrestler who fights unmasked, wearing extravagant makeup and provocatively incorporating his gay sexual identity into his wrestling persona.
Starring Gaél García Bernal in one of the most iconic roles of his career, Cassandro is a giddily entertaining and celebratory drama that hints at the emotional bruises under the sparkly lurex leotard and false lashes to ultimately create space for unapologetically queer men in a male-dominated sport and society.
Shown with short film:
How Did the Rabbit Get to the Moon? (Cómo llegó el conejo a la luna? / T’ilab: jant’inij ti ulit’s an ko’y al a it’s.)
Dir. by Gabriela Badillo. México. 2013. 2 min. Tenek (Huasteco, San Luis Potosí) with English subtitles.
