AllMovie

While professional wrestling is certainly popular in the United States, it doesn't match the stranglehold wrestling has on Mexican popular culture. Known as Lucha Libre, Mexican wrestling features competitors in elaborate masks and costumes whose complex back-stories and adulation by fans puts American grapplers to shame. The heroes of Lucha Libre are so revered in Mexico that a group of political and social activists have attempted to borrow their flashy style and high public profile and use it to reach the people. Filmmaker Arturo Perez Torres offers a profile of these unlikely heroes in his documentary Super Amigos. The Amigos, who wear the masks and capes of Mexican wrestlers while doing social work and activism, include Fray Tormenta, a wrestler turned priest who works with abandoned children; Super Barrio, who acts on behalf of low-income and working class families threatened with homelessness due to Mexico's poor economy and rising rents; Ecologista Universal, who struggles to fight environmental abuse and oppose nuclear power and clearing woodlands; Super Animal, an animal rights activist keen on cleaning up the abusive sport of bullfighting; and Super Gay, who offers counseling for victims of gay bashing and helps organize Mexico City's Gay Pride events. Super Amigos was screened as part of the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival.