Alejandro Lubezki

Morelia Film Festival unveils most impressive Mexican Competition yet

Christine DavilaLeave a comment
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Designed by Rodrigo Toledo based on Michoacana by Jesús de la Helguera

The 11th edition of the Morelia Film Festival (FICM) which will take place in Morelia, Michoacan October 18-27, announced its raison d’être  Mexican competition of 88 films consisting of 11 narrative features, 23 documentaries, 43 short films and finally 11 films in their Michoacan section, in which for the first time in its 11 years a feature narrative will compete.

Further proof the festival is at the fore of social media muscle and hipness, (FICM boasts the 2nd most followers on Twitter out of all international film festivals, second only to Sundance), FICM organized a Google Hangout to discuss the lineup announcement, forgoing the boring, stuffy press conferences that typically accompany festivals’ film announcements.    You can watch it here.   Festival Director Daniela Michel, Producer & Programmer (and film producer) Daniela Alatorre and Festival Advisor/Soulful spirit (and also a filmmaker) Alejandro Lubezki were onhand looking and sounding their ever poised, smart, warm, enthusiastic, professional selves.  The team underscored their deep appreciation and privilege of getting to know their beautifully rich and profound country via the images and stories of the filmmakers over the course of the festival’s history.  Coining this year’s edition as the “First year of the Second Decade”, Daniela Michel exudes a reinvigorated energy as she and her esteemed partners forge ahead in producing the most renowned, anticipated and beloved film festival in Mexico.

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Founding Festival Director, Daniela Michel

Since the program’s inception in 2007 (the festival did not include a narrative feature competition until four years after the festival launched in 2003), the Official Narrative Competition was exclusive to 1st or 2nd time filmmakers.  This year FICM opened it up, making room for such international superstars as Fernando Eimbcke and Michel Franco.   There are brand spanking new titles yet to premiere anywhere else like Paraiso by Mariana Chenillo, A Los Ojos by Michel Franco, and Manto Acuifero by Michael Rowe.  However, it’s hard to say if they will still be world premieres upon their Mexico bow in October since San Sebastian and Toronto are still unrolling their program selections.

Here’s a closer look at each of the 11 narrative features in competition

jaulaFrom this year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard, La Jaula de Oro by Diego Quemada-Diez, a startlingly authentic portrait of Guatemalan migrant youths traveling by “La Bestia, or Beast, what they call the dangerous train on which thousands hitch a ride on at their own peril.  A first feature by the Barcelona born filmmaker who has accumulated a host of experience with varying camera operator credits on Hollywood films and has notably worked with Ken Loach.  The film was called the unglamorous non-Hollywood version of Sin Nombre.

img_15949The Empty Hours/Las Horas Muertas is Aaron Fernandez’s second film after 2007’s Partes Usadas.  It was in San Sebastian’s treasure trove Works in Progress last year and is world premiering in this year’s New Directors competition. Shot in Veracruz, its about a 17 year old who has to caretake his uncle’s motel on a remote stretch of tropical coast.

Last year’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner and Mexican entry to the Oscars was Despues Lucia by Michel Franco.  Apparently he had been working on A Los Ojos before then and it was actually tipped for this year’s Cannes per IonCinema.  Oaxacan actress Monica Del Carmen who gave a fiercely intense and breakthrough performance in Michael Rowe’s Leap Year stars.  Michel’s sister Vicky Franco co-directs.

64121_176095105896167_1265303641_nThe idiosyncratic titled, Amazing Catfish, Los Insolitos Peces Gatos by Claudia Saint Luce is a first feature and only one of two female directed films (not counting Vicky Franco) out of eleven.  A n unexpectedly heart tugging film about a solitary twentysomething who becomes inadavertently folded into a dysfunctional family household run amok by the single mother’s worsening health, she becomes an indispensable honorary family member which ensues with the typical sibling rivalry.  The film is world premiering at this  year’s Locarno film festival and according to sales agent Pyramide’s website, it will also screen at the upcoming Toronto Film Festival even though it is not announced on TIFF’s website yet.  Claudia is for sure a talent to watch!

mari-pepaSomos Mari Pepa which just had its world premiere at the Guanajuato Film Festival is drawn from the short film, Mari Pepa which endeared audiences all over the world and won Morelia in 2010.  An unassuming, empathetic, immediate yet nostalgic portrait of youth as they finish their last year of high school, having to grapple with the gravity of what to do for the rest of their lives. Another  discovery to look out for as this first feature is certain to launch the talented filmmaker’s career.

5.LaVidaDespues-LIfeAfterLa Vida Despues/Life After is from David Pablos, an alumni from the thriving film school CCC, Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica and he is currently finishing up at Colombia NYC film school.  He co-wrote SKIN a mesmerizing short film which premiered at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, directed by Jordana Spiro.  The Life After  which will have its world premiere at the prestigious Venice Film Festival before its FICM premiere, is about two teenage boys who embark on a road trip in search for thier mother who disappears leaving nothing but a mysterious note.  Pablos’ previous film was the 2010 documentary Una Frontera, Todas Las Fronteras which premiered at world’s greatest doc festival IDFA in Amsterdam.  His short film, La Cancion de los Ninos Muertos played the Morelia Film Festival in 2008 and went on to win the Ariel Award in 2010.  You can watch it here

Workers played the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section and was notably in competition at the LA Film Festival by Jose Luis Valle. The film has a tinge of black humor in portraying a maid and a janitor who expect a retirement pension after decades of devoted service, only to take things in their own hands when they get shafted.  Like David Pablos, this is Jose Luis Valle’s first dramatic feature having first made a a documentary feature.  The Salvador born filmmaker who attended the most famous and oldest film school in Mexico city, UNAM’s  Centro de Estudios Cinematográficos (CUEC),  caught the attention of several Mexican festivals with El Milagro de Papa, a documentary he made when he read in the newspaper about a Zacatecas boy whose Leukemia was ‘cured’ by a visit from Pope John Paul II.

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The addition of feature length film Enero by  Adrián González Camargo gives FICM lots of personal pride since for years they’ve made grand efforts to strengthen Michoacan produced films by having a competitive Michoacan film category, resulting in today’s thriving filmmaking scene.  Adrian is not only an alumni and collaborator of the festival but he also run a series of indigenous film screenings in the Michocan area.  He will be attending CSU Northridge on a Fulbright scholarship this year.  The film sounds like a dark, on the run thriller about a man who kills his wife and hits the road with his lover, only to find that their own happiness together might not be their destination after all.

Screen Shot 2013-08-09 at 4.42.24 PMFrom Camera d’Or winner for 2011’s Leap Year,  Michael Rowe, the Australian born Mexico based filmmaker is back with his second feature, Manto Acuifero/The Well.  Shot in Puebla.  The film is about an 8 year old girl who longs for her father to return even though her mom has moved in with another man.  A well in the backyard of their house becomes a secret place that inspires her imagination.   The Well is one of two films produced by Canana in this competition.  Rowe has already secured funding for his third film, Rest Home which will be his first film in English

Penumbra – Shot on 16 mm this film premiered at the Rotterdam film festival and is currently making the international festival circuit tour including Edinburgh Film Festival.  Eduardo Villanueva’s previous film was the trippy, wildly intriguing and strikingly shot German/Mexican film Trip To Tulum.

club-sandwich Fernando Eimbcke is back with his third feature.  He made a big splash back in 2004 with his first feature, Duck Season, a jewel discovered in the 2004 Guadalajara Film Festival went on to play Cannes’ Critics Week, won AFI’s grand jury prize and won the Ariel for Best film.  His followup was in 2008 Lake Tahoe, a script developed at the Sundance Institute Screenwriters lab and which film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival where it won the Fipresci Prize.  Club Sandwich is only described as the growing pains relationship between a mother and her teenaged son.  It is set to world premiere in competiton at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Screen Shot 2013-08-09 at 4.44.01 PMAnd last but certainly not least, I’m super excited for Mariana Chenillo’s sophmore feature, PARAISO.  Chenillo won the Audience Award at FICM 2008 with her beautifully dramatic and humorously pitched film, 5 Days Without Nora. It went on to be a hit at many international festivals and won Best film at the 2010 Ariel Awards (Mexico’s top film honors).  The film is about an overweight couple who move to Mexico City where they immediately feel the social pressure of being overweight surrounded by beautiful people. When they decide to jointly go on a diet, their relationship is put to the test when one of them successfully makes progress while the other continues to struggle. Produced by Canana’s Pablo Cruz.

Below is the list recapped with International Sales Agent info.

*Denotes first feature (Opera Prima)

Sección de Largometraje Mexicano

1. A los ojos. Michel y Victoria Franco
2. Club Sándwich. Fernando Eimbcke  (Funny Balloons)
3. Las horas muertas. Aarón Fernández (Urban Distribution International)
*4. Los insólitos peces gato. Claudia Sainte-Luce  (Pyramide)
*5. La jaula de oro. Diego Quemada-Diez  (Films Boutique)
6. Manto Acuífero. Michael Rowe  (Mundial)
7. Paraíso. Mariana Chenillo   (Mundial)
8. Penumbra. Eduardo Villanueva
*9. Somos Mari Pepa. Samuel Kishi Leopo  (Figa Films)
10. La vida después David Pablos
11. Workers José Luis Valle  (MPM Film)

Not to ignore the bread and butter of the festival, the docs and shorts – I’ll get to them in a later post.  In the meantime, to see the rest of the competition titles click here.

Viva Cine!  Viva @FICM!

En hora buena – Introducing The Mexican Film Festival of The Americas

Christine DavilaLeave a comment

Presented by Mexico City’s Secretary of Tourism and Casa de Chicago, the inaugural edition of The Mexican Film Festival of The Americas in Chicago opens Thursday, September 20th and goes until Friday, September 28.  Screenings will take place at the historic and handsomely re-fitted Art Deco Logan Theater inside a 180 seater.  The novel and ambitious festival’s mission is “dedicated to supporting and cultivating every aspect of Mexican Cinema, including emerging and cutting edge Mexican films with the emphasis on discovering new filmmakers from Mexico and abroad.”

 I couldn’t think of a better film to open this kind of festival than the nostalgic documentary La Perdida by Viviana Garcia Besne, a personal and revealing odyssey through Mexican Cinema’s cherished Golden Age of Cinema.  A programming slate of highly distinct genre and caliber, the 30 something film lineup includes Mexican Ariel Film winner, Dias de Gracia by Everardo Gout and Chicana coming of age Mosquita y Mari by Aurora Guerrero. Positioning themselves as a festival of discovery the Festival will unveil the world premiere of Mission Park by Bryan Ramirez and produced by Douglas Spain, an accomplished debut and cautionary tale about four childhood friends whose different paths cause them to cross and confront their loyalty.  The Festival will close with a very special headliner event honoring Academy Award actor nominee Demián Bichir, who is taking a time out from his crazy busy schedule to christen the baby festival.

A debate about when to have a debate – scene from El Ingeniero

Sure to be THE social event of the week, go rub elbows with big-wigs and talk politics with one of Mexico’s brightest political family dynasty members, the erudite and three time presidential candidate, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano at the International premiere of  El Ingeniero by Alejandro Lubezki.  An incredible behind the scenes of the  2000 Mexican presidential campaign leading up to the last (and short-lived) time the PRI got booted out of office, the intimate access exposes the grueling campaign circus and mechanics, and ultimately shows  Cárdenas as an authentic, flawed and salt-of the-earth character.    Read my review from Guadalajara here.

So how did a festival score such high profile talent, gems and world premieres???  Festival Director’s Jesse Charbonier’s reputation, experience and contacts.  Charbonier served as Operations Manager and then Programming Director of the renowned Chicago International Film Festival for years, where he strengthed the Latino programming and bestowed a special award upon Bichir who broke out with three films in 1999 including Sexo Pudor y Lagrimas which the festival will screen (love). Jesse has also served as distribution consultant and producer to several films, in addition to establishing his singing career.  It was his desire to reach the large Mexican population of Chicago and present a more progressive, edgy cinema that triggered the start of this collaboration between sister cities, Chicago and Mexico City.   He curated the strong lineup from traveling and covering the Guadalajara Film Festival FICG27 and HBO’s NY Latino Film festival, as well as through recommendations from several colleagues.  His approach; “Every night is Opening Night.”  Each film has their own slot that will run without any competition.  Along with his distinctive taste in programming, this type of concscientious care, operation know-how, and connection to the Chicago audience, ensures the Festival has its best foot forward.

Chi-town style – comfy, plush theater

Thanks to not one but two airline sponsors (no small feat for a festival to arrange), All filmmakers who were available will be present for their screenings and Q&As and in some cases for the preceding reception.  Regular films are a reasonable $8 and the special event films are $15 which include a pre-screening reception with complimentary cocktails (tequila sponsor, EC Charro) and food!  Well worth a film, filmmaker convo and light dinner.

Theater dates back to 1915

Que envidia chicos, as a Chicana From Chicago living in LA I wish I were in my hometown to celebrate this momentous occassion.  You have been given a gift my Chi-town peeps.  Go hang out with these talented filmmakers, see their films and report back.  Help spread the word.  Check out the schedule, you can buy tickets on Brown Paper Tickets and like the festival on Face.

Sending lots of besos and suerte to the festival.

MEX DOC WORLD PREMIERE: El Ingeniero by Alejandro Lubezki – Fear and Loathing on the Campaña ‘00

Christine Davila3 Comments
Alejandro Lubezki (right) with Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano

Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Solórzano, or The Engineer as he is reverentially called, is a stalwart modern day politician, whose distinguished family (Think Kennedys) includes his father, Lazaro Cárdenas (President of Mexico, 1934-1940), and son Lázaro Cárdenas Batel, former governor of Michoacan.  Cárdenas Solórzano is a three time presidential candidate and beloved PRD (Party of the Democratic Revolution) moral leader who in this electoral year is a big supporter of the party’s candidate, Andrés Manuel López Obrador (Obrador’s second presidential bid following the highly disputed 2006 election in which supposedly a .56% margin marked his defeat against Felipe Calderón ).

In El Ingeniero, filmmaker Alejandro Lubezki shares the unprecedented access granted him and gives us an intimate, fly on the wall doc, shot during Cárdenas infamously last, arduously fought attempt in 1999 to wrangle power from the dominant PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) in the 2000 election year.  It is well known that in his previous 1988 run, blatant fraud prevented Cárdenas from rightfully taking presidency.  We also know how it ended in 2000; According to most sources (with TV Azteca giving the highest, 9 point margin), only a few points separated PANista Vicente Fox Quesada and Cárdenas.  Fox emerged the winner, even though in the public perception it seemed he had all but squandered his early gains in the polls.

The idea to follow Cárdenas was instigated in part by Alejandro’s older brother Emmanuel Lubezki (Oscar nominated cinematographer of Tree of Life) who had not lived in Mexico for years.  Surprised that nobody was making a film about Cárdenas, Alejandro himself asked for a meeting, proposed the documentary directly with The Engineer, and a handshake and few days later, was authorized the incredible access and began rolling.  As heard at the Q&A of the world premiere at Ficg27, Alejandro took approximately 300 hours of footage, which then took him about that much time to edit into the story onscreen – notwithstanding the twelve years from since it was shot.

The camera literally squeezes into the political strategy and image-making sessions that shows Cárdenas’ ardent camp of intense and genuinely, frank political advisors agree and disagree on how to make a president, bearing witness to the sweaty behind the scenes process. Securing the right PR agency, approving photos (“Not that photo Ingeniero, you look like Subcomandante Marcos”), and the exhausting efforts of intervening the media’s powerful influence, forms the first part of the film. Traveling day and night to beautifully Nahuatl named towns hardly heard from, Cárdenas appears to be a man of the people. Although at first Cárdenas seems somewhat rigid if not overly stoic.  Soon however, what we learn is his characteristically quick-witted humor emerges.  When we finally get to see him mad, we agree with his wife who points it out plainly; he asserts a stronger presence.  Indeed it’s not until then we see him verbally swing back against Fox that he appears to gain upward traction.  In a memorable sequence that testifies to the most surreal only-in-politics world, we watch the three political candidates debate about when to have a debate.  Fox’s asinine ability of not yielding to rationale turns him into a four year old as he throws a public tantrum that the debate must take place that very same day – Cárdenas hitting his stride, chimes in; ”Don’t worry I trust you won’t forget what you prepared for today by Friday”.  That’s not to say Fox is ostracized entirely in the film.  We also witness his sense of humor (it’s a big Mexican thing), and hear him give credit and thank his worthy opponent more than once. After all both parties sought to defeat el PRI, so the win to a certain extent was shared.

Lubezki’s Director statement says the film’s intent was not to show nor cater to the public’s desire to see the scandal and corruption inherent in the treacherous political machine, but to show the arduous campaign process and the authentic character of Cárdenas.  And so, by eschewing the cynicism and distrust surrounding politics that we ourselves tend to perpetuate, he astutely, perhaps subversively infers a positive and encouraging tone, very timely given this election year.  As long as there are political leaders like El Ingeniero, it’s crucial to not fall defeatist and avoid the ‘My vote doesn’t count’ stance.

Now I’m not that well informed on Mexico’s political landscape so I imagine there must be content here that goes over my head, and that invested people might get more political juice out of it. I’ll leave that to the pundits and experts to glean.   What’s not lost on me however, and what points to the film’s ability to transcend its specific political reference and country, is the damn herculean strength, passion and tenacity required to run for office, the epic scale of mobilizing a presidential campaign, and most interestingly, the ongoing wage of power between today’s grassroots triumphs and losses over big money controlled political interests.

At the end of the film we see “the moment”  has arrived.  The campaign team which has exausted blood, sweat and tears, watches in agony as the omnipotent media makes its suspect exit polls and projections showing Fox celebrating his win ahead of the official confirmation.  It is nothing short of infuriating and profound disappointment. Yet as testament that leadership is in his DNA, Cárdenas eloquently turns the energy around by standing up and shaking everyone’s hands to thank them for their trust and support.  As he makes the rounds, a strong applause swells.  The clapping does not die down but only gets louder as he continues to work the room, warmly showing his gratitude and promising all of us that “La Lucha is far from over.

A definite highlight of the Mexican Documentary Competition in this year’s Guadalajara Film Festival, I hope El Ingeniero travels far and wide this year.  For more information and to read the Director’s statement click  here (yes, its in Spanish).