79 Primaveras1969

Santiago Alvarez’s portrait of Ho Chi Minh braids beauty and devastation from its opening montage of blooming flowers and bomb clouds. Poring over documentary footage of the Vietnamese leader to search out the signs of bravery, Alvarez tracks Ho's political education from the French communist party to Dien Bien Phu, independence to American incursion. A psychedelic detour into American antiwar protests pairs with mass grief at Ho’s funeral and a wildly experimental finale absorbs violence at the level of the film frame.