Santiago Maza, a Mexican filmmaker whose previous documentary ‘State of Silence’ won the best feature award at the 2024 Santiago Film Festival, has premiered his latest work at the Morelia Film Festival. The new documentary, titled ‘Black Shine,’ focuses on the consequences of a mining explosion that occurred in 2006 in Coahuila, Mexico’s coal-mining region.
The film centers on two individuals affected by the disaster: El Güero, a former miner who has successfully recovered his brother’s remains, and Elvira, who continues to wait for her husband to be recovered. The documentary examines how families have maintained their struggle for recovery and justice over the past two decades, portraying their efforts as an act of resistance against forgetting.
Maza first encountered the story while traveling to Coahuila in 2021 to film a project about climate change. He connected with the Pasta de Conchos organization, which has been leading efforts to locate and recover the buried miners’ remains. According to Maza, the mining company and government initially concealed the disaster rather than conduct a proper search. The recovery efforts did not gain significant momentum until a political leader visited the site in 2018 and pledged to make the recovery a priority.
The short film features poetry written by local author Julián Herbert, which explores themes of patience, memory, and endurance in the face of loss. Maza shot the documentary in April with a small crew of four people, employing an intuitive approach that allowed the team to capture both the landscapes and personal stories of the region.
Maza is currently developing his next project, a mockumentary titled ‘Ecocidas ¡Arrepentíos!’ that explores environmental damage and guilt through dark humor. The filmmaker is seeking state support in Mexico and hopes to develop the project as a co-production with Spain.
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