Where Is Juan Moctezuma?

Juan For The 
History Books

Where Is Juan Moctezuma?
Directed by Alaric S. Rocha 
USA 2025
Blue Bassoon Pictures
Screened at FrightFest Sunday 24th August 2025

Well now, this is the film I was most looking forward to as my final FrightFest of this year’s August edition of the festival. Where Is Juan Moctezuma? is written by, directed by and stars Alaric S. Rocha (as himself). This one throws up some interesting questions too. At the start of the screening, Alan Jones asked people what they thought this was and, I think people mostly assumed it would be a ‘mockumentary’ as opposed to an actual documentary. And then the director came on and, after vocally knocking CGI effects in favour of practical (that’s always going to win him some points with a crowd of movie goers) he went on to explain his intentions that people, because of things like CGI, didn’t really believe half the things they were watching on screen were real anymore and that he wanted to make something which would blur the lines between what is fact and what is fiction.

Now, to be fair, this is pretty much what a mockumentary does anyway but, for this audience member, it also brings into play, especially with subject matter like this, a thing I have lately rechristened as The Tarantino Effect. Which I’ll get to in just a little while.

The mockumentary is about a long disappeared Mexican director who made films due to his obsession with a specific actress and how, after losing said actress when she married the Lucahdore known as The Scorpion, he tried to woo her back with specific kinds of roles in his films before, after a tragedy (of sorts), he disappeared from history altogether... taking with him his final, just finished film, which was to be his big American breakthrough for producer Roger Corman. 

And it’s a mostly fun film... some of the jokes and references work really well and caused me to let slip the odd chuckle or two. Which is good because the film started even later than the rescheduled, advertised time and, for the first five minutes, until the director rushed out of the auditorium to correct the mistake (he was sitting in front of me in the next row down), it was projected in the wrong aspect ratio, causing all the subtitles and character identifiers to be invisible, fallen off the bottom of the screen... so I was in a pretty bad mood for a while there, more concerned with what time the film would end so I could have a shot at catching the last train home. 

I would say that the film was perhaps a trifle long but, again, this is not an unusual thing with this particular sub-genre and I feel this director, as much as any of them, might possibly be accused of carrying on some of the jokes a little too long, truth be told. But it was a fine ride through the darker underbelly of classic mexploitation films (including some footage sourced from other, more famous non-Mexican films). However, don’t get me started on the way some of this footage was integrated into the film or the way, for example, the Saul Bass designed Vertigo poster was stolen and turned green for the poster of one of the fictitious films within the movie. Yes, I realise this was as much a comment on how a real low budget film maker in Mexico might have manipulated the material themselves but... yeah, that one in particular didn’t sit well with me. 

But this brings me to the whole problem with, not just this mockumentary but, the whole sub-genre in particular. So... The Tarantino Effect... to make a shorter explanation of it this time around... is when you have youngsters or less educated adults assuming that, for example, due to the ending of Inglourious Basterds, Hitler was truly machine gunned to death in an exploding cinema, which ended the Second World War. Or, again for example, due to the ending of Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, Sharon Tate was not murdered by one of Charles Manson’s followers and instead had a long and fruitful acting career. Is it irresponsible to let certain audience members roam around with this impression (I work in a college and, believe me people, this is what the kiddies take away as gospel history)?

So, I found the mix of mexploitation history mixed in with the fiction here... well personally fairly easy to navigate because I know a little, at least, of the history of the genre but, honestly, I worry where the line is drawn for some people who don’t know which parts of the history are reality and which bits are the fiction woven in. I mean, the mexploitation genre is bizarre and somewhat larger than life enough already anyway so, it must be really hard for some people to tell the difference... and assign fiction and fact to the wrong elements. This film deals with fictional director Juan Moctezuma II but, it probably doesn’t help that there was also a real Juan Moctezuma working in the Mexican industry and making these kinds of films there at this time. 

And my other point would be... I was surprised how many important Mexican B-movie directors were also left out of things. I don’t remember hearing René Cardona’s name once, for instance (although I think his picture might have flashed past at one or two points). So I would beg to differ with Alan Jones comments that this film is a crash course through the Mexploitation genre... I really don’t think it is, for those who don't know it. 

All in all though, there was some really nice stuff in Where Is Juan Moctezuma? This included talking heads from various film historians, the likes of Brian Yuzna and, one of my favourite directors, Isaac Ezban, who I really appreciate seeing here. I’m not sure if I would recommend this movie to many of my friends but, fans of mexploitation and, especially, Mexican wrestling, should find much to enjoy in this one.