The exhibit traced Mexico's history through the pre-Columbian period, colonialism, and independence through the eyes of Mexican and foreign artists. The exhibit included paintings by Bustos, Rivera, Siqueiros, and Kahlo; photographs by Modotti; and a film by Sergei Eisenstein, a revolutionary Soviet Russian film director and film theorist noted in particular for his silent films, including Que Viva Mexico.
Several silent films covered the reign of Maximilian of Hapsburg, 1867 in Mexico. "Maximilian I of Mexico (6 July 1832 – 19 June 1867; born Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph of Austria) was a member of the Imperial House of Habsburg-Lorraine. After a distinguished career in the Austrian Navy he was proclaimed Emperor of Mexico, during the Second Mexican Empire, with the backing of Napoleon III of France and a group of Mexican monarchists on 10 April 1864. Many foreign governments refused to recognize his government, including the United States. This helped to ensure the success of Republican forces led by Benito Juárez, and Maximilian was executed, after capture by Republicans, in 1867.
