Sierra Madre to Arechuyvo (Ray Garner)

Year Published: 1950

Creator: Ray Garner

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: This silent film accompanied lectures by filmmakers Ray and Virginia (Jinny) Garner, ending with a pack mule journey into the Sierra Madre mountains of Sonora and Chihuahua, Mexico. Starting out at Arizona's: FF Ranch, Ray & Jinny discuss, show, and pack provisions, CU. Cleaning tent, view camera, lenses, Kodachrome film in stacks, Jinny Garner makes a chimpanzee hand puppet, which she'll later use to amuse children in Mexico. They load their white Plymouth woodie, entering Mexico through the Nogales Mexican Customs check. Shows Barranca de Cobre, Magdalena, George Washington Hotel, International Beer Garden. Hermosillo: modern buildings & houses, Jinny lying in chaise longue, kindergarten. Guaymas to Alamos, Jinny in hammock, girl with pet fox, man with pet owl, feeding it with spoon, little girl with pet parrot. Jinny buys sombrero from vendor, girl with pet armadillo, Dodge Power Wagon & friends convoy to San Bernardo, outfitting burros, riding into a canyon.  Jinny shows chimp puppet to kids, traditional tire sandals worn by man. To Arechuyvo, Chihuahua, panorama of hacienda, fetching water from well, hacienda grounds, children, firewood gatherers, making tortillas on outdoor stove, blacksmith/wood carver, making a plow, oxen pulling plow, sowing corn seed. The film ends with a boy and his pet bird. Archaeologist Charles C. Di Peso, known for his three-year excavations at Casas Grandes (Paquime) in Chihuahua, and later as the Director of the Amerind Foundation, is seen throughout the film. For more on William Shirley Fulton and Arizona's FF Ranch, see: http://mail.amerind.org/ffranch.html  and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Shirley_Fulton