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| A scene from Circo. |
No clowning around
By Miranda Inganni
Compelling yet uncomfortable to watch, Aaron Schock’s 75-minute documentary, Circo, goes under the tent and behind the ringmaster scenes of the Ponce family, a small circus troupe in Mexico living by the skin of their skills.
A family business struggling to stay afloat, Tino wants his family to maintain the century-(h)old Ponce tradition while his wife, Ivonne, contends that this is no life for their four children. (Maybe the fearful 15-year-old Ivonne should have tried to talk it out with her mother before hiding in Tino’s truck?)
Shedding light on the cruelty to humans and other animals in the circus world, this documentary illustrates what can happen when the most passively controlling parents, and willing children, try to live the lives they believe they wanted.
(Circo screens Jan. 15, 7 p.m., Palm Canyon Theatre; Jan. 16, 10 a.m., Palm Canyon Theatre. For more information: Circo)
