In the Pit

The documentary was shot at a construction site in Mexico City. The work being done is the second deck of the Periferico ring road. The film follows the men working there. The camera records their daily work and what they say to each other. Jokes, curses and the life stories they tell are the real material of the film. The men give their own lives in their own words. There is no voice-over; the director does not step in. The danger of the work and the weight of the labour become visible. The work puts not the road but the people building it at the centre. The music too was built out of the sounds of the site, out of cranes and jackhammers and saws. The film took the grand jury prize for international documentary at Sundance. Juan Carlos Rulfo’s Mexican documentary, eighty four minutes long, was completed in 2006.