Rarely seen today, A Village Fading Away is a fascinating exploration of the work of celebrated Mexican historian Luis González y González, a pioneering figure in the field of “Microhistory," a mode of historical inquiry that examines the smallest constitutive units of a place or time- a village, or farmer- as a way to understand a larger period. Inspired by the remote small Michoacán town of San José de Gracia, where he was born and raised, González set out to test his theory that the most particular and local offers a revealing microcosm of larger and otherwise invisible socio-cultural and historical forces at work. Using González himself as guide, Guzmán traces the deep patterns of tradition and shared memory that define the small town, with the voices of the town elders drawing the film back into a distant past that seems incredibly alive. – HG