Working through their own offices in Mexico and New York and with Palomar Pictures/Slo-Graffiti, Everardo and Leopoldo Gout, Mario Mandujano and Jorge Canedo develop commercials, music videos and visual art. The seeds of the squash were sown when Everardo, then 17, sent the script for his short film "El Banquete" to his brother Leopoldo in London.

"It was really weird. The script was the same imagery as my paintings and we hadn't seen each other in three years," says Leopoldo Gout.

The pair made the film and soon found themselves collaborating with artist B+ on the video for DJ Shadow's "High Noon." Other hip hop projects soon followed; Las Calabazitaz conceived and created all visuals (from album art to ads to videos) for Mos Def's "Black On Both Sides" LP. Another collaboration with Mos Def, La Moña, is a feature doc comparing salsa and hip hop music, street life and people in Havana and Brooklyn.

Their first commercial came when a creative director from Mexico's Vale Bates saw some art work and asked the brothers to translate it into a Sony ad. The spot contrasts an audiophile tinkering with his stereo and a surreal woman writhing in response to his knob twiddling; it's laced with jagged cuts and twisted art direction.

A South-east Asian campaign for Suzuki took the group to Vietnam; unfortunately, customs held back their gear. So, the Gout's used a world war II-era 35mm camera, a jury-rigged steadicam and as many still cameras as could be rented in Ho Chi Minh City. The spot begins by pulling out from the animated retina of a Suzuki-sporting hipster reclining in a sexy lounge environment. Jumpy cuts and alternating film speeds lead to a still photo sequence that morphs him from chair to scooter. He navigates the street and a tight shot of his wheel slides into a still; the POV pulls out revealing the still is a roadside billboard as the scooter drives by. The ad closes with a new descent into the fractal eye.

A Diesel spot for Latin America has a rotund Speedo-clad man diving beneath the aqua waves of an Olympic-sized pool; once submerged he is surrounded by aquatic nymphs who encircle and delight him in superb synchro-style.

"Diesel has a big worldwide campaign but the last was based only on the Internet which didn't work well for Latin America," says Gout. "We were asked to write the creative. It's a dreamy, weird piece that has a Mexican way of looking at the world."

The Morcheeba video "Be Yourself" is both a lavish performance piece, a glimpse into the Mexican psyche and an homage to the brother's departed dog, Caos.

"In the video, the dog can smell the truth inside of people," says Gout.

Lush shots of Mexico City and the countryside are intermingled with opulent Morcheeba performance sequences and the dog's journey and discoveries. Each time the dog encounters a character, his nose reveals their second selves via a snapshot-like sequence (a soldier is a drag queen, a butcher a late night swinger and a poor woman a mud-slinging hippy). This and every Calabazitas project is handled by resident DP, Mandujano.

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