Jaripeo

A pickup truck takes us along a country road in Mexico, where co-filmmaker Efraín Mojica, accompanied by Rebecca Zweig, grew up. They will be our guide through rural rodeo competitions, the “jaripeos” – a site of contest that, through their eyes, becomes an unexpected terrain for exploring queer desires. It is here that they partly built their identity, within the folds of rugged masculinity, under the codes of a cowboy culture that dominates and subdues the untamed on the backs of enraged bulls. Efraín documents the voices of queer people living in the Michoacán region, and whose lives revolve around these competitions. We see how people construct their sexuality and gender, how they come out and how they embrace themselves outside of urban centres where LGBTQ+ community spaces simply do not exist. Beyond the testimonies presented as intimate exchanges, Super 8 sequences with a strongly subjective gaze convey desire on the screen: eyes lingering on the details of the body as the rodeo spectacle plays out, fleeting gestures of affection and the playful glances of flirting among audience members – everything that goes on under the hetero radar. A personal story that resonates with those of others and, through the film project, finds its collective momentum. 

Mourad-Anis Moussa

Rebecca Zweig
Jaripeo, 2026

Efraín Mojica
Jaripeo, 2026