Sergei Eisenstein's ¡Que viva México!
After halting the production of Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's film ¡Que viva México! in 1932, the film's producer, novelist Upton Sinclair, controversially sought to recoup his financial investment in the project by allowing others to edit the nearly 200,000 linear feet of footage already shot by Eduard Tisse into films without Eisenstein’s permission. Three of these rarely seen films; the only film Eisenstein completed while in Mexico, El Desastre en Oaxaca (1931); and Peter Greenaway's 2015 interpretation of Eisenstein's experience in Mexico, Eisenstein in Guanajuato, comprise this series. An exhibition of archival material from the Lilly Library's Upton Sinclair Papers and the collection of the IU Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology accompanies it on the lower level of IU Cinema. This partnership is supported through IU Cinema’s Creative Collaborations program.
Curated by the IU Department of Art History, with support from the Lilly Library, The Media School, the Russian and East European Institute, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, the City of Bloomington, and IU Cinema.








Coming up in this series
Previously in this series
This screening includes Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Tues, Oct 21, 2025, 7 pm
This screening includes Mexico Short Films
Tues, Sept 23, 2025, 7 pm
This screening includes Mexican Symphony: Six Educational Films
Tues, Sept 9, 2025, 7 pm
