Documenting Precarity and Other Ghostly Remains: Passivity as Political Practice in Betzabé García's Documentary Los reyes del pueblo que no existe

Los reyes del pueblo que no existe (Mexico, 2014) is Betzabé García's first full-length documentary. The world captured through the surreal shots and still frames of a town partially submerged by water makes the presence of the camera disappear into the stillness of the landscape, transporting viewers into the eerie town of San Marcos. The ghostly town was inundated after a government dam, Picachos, was built to provide a thirty-year water supply to the growing city of Mazatlán, Sinaloa. The townspeople were not consulted about the construction or forewarned that many towns would be inundated. Many families relocated to neighboring towns, but three families refused to leave and stayed in San Marcos.