Born into a communist family in Mexico City, Paul Leduc (1942-2020) studied architecture and theatre before going to France to the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies (IDHEC), where he discovered the work of Jean Rouch. After returning home, he actively participated in the film club movement, wrote critiques, and co-founded—together with Alexis Grivas, Rafael Castanedo, and Felipe Cazals—the collective Cine 70.
...
Leduc’s path, which brought him to the refusal of words, was dedicated to the search of a new form and the right film language to depict Latin American culture. Glauber Rocha was an important accomplice in these discussions. Leduc explained: “Mexico was more about what emerged from a creator such as Juan Rulfo, who writes about silence, the desert, the dry valleys. The rhythm is rather different in the countries where there were indigenous civilisations; music shows it”.
..
While his documentaries are treatises on such topics as the exploitation of the Otomi indigenous people (Etnocidio. Notas sobre la región del Mezquital, 1976) or the civil war in El Salvador (Historias prohibidas de Pulgarcito, 1980), his fictional work deals with Mesoamerican colonisation in the form of experimental musicals: Barroco (1989), Latino Bar (1990) and Dollar Mambo (1993).

Mathematical precision, choreography of human gazes, lack of dialogue, dance and political irreconcilability became the essential parts of the language Leduc was looking for all his life.