Plunging into the shadowy waters of cinematic history, Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) emerges not just as a film but as a phenomenon that has captivated the imaginations of horror enthusiasts and film buffs alike for seven decades. Celebrating its 70-year legacy, this masterpiece has swum far beyond its origins, securing a revered spot in the heart of monster movie lore.
As we dive deeper, we’re embarking on a journey through time, revisiting the ingenious craft and visionary storytelling that have made the Gill-man a beloved icon of horror. This retrospective aims to unearth the secrets behind the movie’s creation, its groundbreaking achievements, and the enduring fascination it holds. Let’s submerge ourselves in the murky depths where the Creature lurks, to rediscover the magic that makes Creature from the Black Lagoon a timeless treasure of the horror genre.
Universal Diving Into the Depths: The Origin Story
Creature from the Black Lagoon...
As we dive deeper, we’re embarking on a journey through time, revisiting the ingenious craft and visionary storytelling that have made the Gill-man a beloved icon of horror. This retrospective aims to unearth the secrets behind the movie’s creation, its groundbreaking achievements, and the enduring fascination it holds. Let’s submerge ourselves in the murky depths where the Creature lurks, to rediscover the magic that makes Creature from the Black Lagoon a timeless treasure of the horror genre.
Universal Diving Into the Depths: The Origin Story
Creature from the Black Lagoon...
- 3/6/2024
- by Kimberley Elizabeth
"A film that shocks! A picture that dazzles! An experience that thrills!" Janus Films has revealed a brand new official trailer for a 4K restoration of Victims of Sin, a 1951 classic Mexican film from the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, written and directed by Emilio Fernández. It's ready for a proper cinema re-release in the US, with a run at the Film Forum cinema in NYC starting in a few weeks. Set in México City, a famous Cuban dancer from "Cabaret Changó" rescues a baby from a garbage can and decides to raise him, but her pachuco pimp gets in her way. Of course. IDescribed as a "blend of film noir, melodrama, and musical", the film has rarely been seen in the US, with the first release in Mexico in 1951. It stars acting-dancing sensation Ninón Sevilla, plus Tito Junco and Rodolfo Acosta, with cinematography by the legendary Gabriel Figueroa. Fernández...
- 9/26/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Eugenio Caballero can conceive an enchanted forest and a disaster zone with equal levels of meticulous ingenuity. He can just as deftly recreate the space where an intimate memory occurred many decades ago, or a surrealist dream where reality and fantasy meet.
The Oscar-winning Mexican production designer learned his profession the way old trades are passed on: as an apprentice absorbing knowledge from more seasoned artisans on the job. Today, his inhabitable fabrications enrich the frames of larger-than-life epics around the globe, as well as unassuming independent dramas in his home country.
“The decisions that I make now are not based on my personal taste, but based on what the story requires,” Caballero told IndieWire during an interview at the Virginia Film Festival, where he received the festival’s 2022 Craft Award. “That’s when you realize the narrative power of the craft.”
Given his world-building dexterity, Caballero is the rare...
The Oscar-winning Mexican production designer learned his profession the way old trades are passed on: as an apprentice absorbing knowledge from more seasoned artisans on the job. Today, his inhabitable fabrications enrich the frames of larger-than-life epics around the globe, as well as unassuming independent dramas in his home country.
“The decisions that I make now are not based on my personal taste, but based on what the story requires,” Caballero told IndieWire during an interview at the Virginia Film Festival, where he received the festival’s 2022 Craft Award. “That’s when you realize the narrative power of the craft.”
Given his world-building dexterity, Caballero is the rare...
- 1/7/2023
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
The Night of the Iguana
Blu-ray
Warner Archive
1964 / 1.85: 1 / 125 Min.
Starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr
Written by Anthony Veiller, John Huston
Directed by John Huston
T. Lawrence Shannon looks more like a dock worker than a clergyman but to the women in his congregation he’s as soulful as one of Raphael’s angels. The problem is that this particular angel’s wings have been clipped. Shannon’s faith isn’t the only thing he’s struggling with; his wandering eye and freethinking ways suggest a reined-in version of Urbain Grandier, the randy minister of The Devils of Loudon. But where Grandier was unrepentant, Shannon is a walking guilt complex.
There’s a storm brewing this rainy Sunday morning and inside the church Shannon is doing his best to match it; his sermon begins in a reverent whisper but builds to a booming confession, “He that hath no...
Blu-ray
Warner Archive
1964 / 1.85: 1 / 125 Min.
Starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr
Written by Anthony Veiller, John Huston
Directed by John Huston
T. Lawrence Shannon looks more like a dock worker than a clergyman but to the women in his congregation he’s as soulful as one of Raphael’s angels. The problem is that this particular angel’s wings have been clipped. Shannon’s faith isn’t the only thing he’s struggling with; his wandering eye and freethinking ways suggest a reined-in version of Urbain Grandier, the randy minister of The Devils of Loudon. But where Grandier was unrepentant, Shannon is a walking guilt complex.
There’s a storm brewing this rainy Sunday morning and inside the church Shannon is doing his best to match it; his sermon begins in a reverent whisper but builds to a booming confession, “He that hath no...
- 12/20/2022
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe official poster for the the 54th Directors' Fortnight is by multidisciplinary artist Cecilia Paredes. In a statement, the festival points out that Paredes' photo-performance is "both visible and invisible, the artist blends into the image she creates, much like filmmakers do in their films." Following the release of Joel Coen's The Tragedy of Macbeth, Ethan Coen is setting out to make his own solo directorial debut with a still-untitled "lesbian road trip project that Coen and [his wife, Tricia Cooke] initially wrote in the mid-2000s." Gus Van Sant is set to direct the second season of Ryan Murphy's anthology series Feud, which will be based on Laurence Leamer's book Capote’s Women: A True Story of Love, Betrayal, and a Swan Song for an Era. Playing one such woman will be Naomi Watts,...
- 4/6/2022
- MUBI
Guillermo del Toro’s “Nightmare Alley” channels Hollywood’s classic noir period of the 1940s and 1950s, only there’s one glaring difference: Del Toro’s film is in color. Gone are the high-contrast black-and-white visuals and instead are vivid greens and sumptuous golds. Speaking to IndieWire’s Eric Kohn this week as part of the Awards Spotlight video series, del Toro explained that even though his “Nightmare Alley” is not in black-and-white, he still filmed the noir as if it were. Del Toro even revealed a black-and-white cut of “Nightmare Alley” exists that he “hopes can be seen.”
“I was production assistant in a movie with Gabriel Figueroa, who was the greatest Mexican cinematographer,” del Toro said. “He had a great kinship with Gregg Toland, they were good friends. He said to me when you art direct for black and white, you use the greens and the reds and...
“I was production assistant in a movie with Gabriel Figueroa, who was the greatest Mexican cinematographer,” del Toro said. “He had a great kinship with Gregg Toland, they were good friends. He said to me when you art direct for black and white, you use the greens and the reds and...
- 12/3/2021
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
“If we don’t continue this tradition, everybody will be working on commercials and soap operas.”
Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro was due to join film industry colleagues on Thursday night (May 21) for an online showdown with Mexican officials after a government bid to scrap a production fund sparked industry outrage.
Del Toro, who won the best director Oscar for The Shape Of Water two years ago, warned of a “devastation” that would wipe out support for future generations of storytellers should lawmakers approve a proposal to remove the Fidecine fund.
“After we thought we had arrived at a solution they [the government] have made this unilateral move,...
Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro was due to join film industry colleagues on Thursday night (May 21) for an online showdown with Mexican officials after a government bid to scrap a production fund sparked industry outrage.
Del Toro, who won the best director Oscar for The Shape Of Water two years ago, warned of a “devastation” that would wipe out support for future generations of storytellers should lawmakers approve a proposal to remove the Fidecine fund.
“After we thought we had arrived at a solution they [the government] have made this unilateral move,...
- 5/22/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
“If we don’t continue this tradition everybody will be working on commercials and soap operas.”
Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro was joining film industry colleagues on Thursday night (May 21) to meet with Mexican officials after a sudden bid by the government to eliminate one of the country’s two national funds sparked outrage.
Del Toro, who won the best director Oscar for The Shape Of Water two years ago, warned of a “devastation” that will remove support for future generations of storytellers should a proposal to remove the Fidecine fund get approval by lawmakers.
“After we thought we had arrived...
Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro was joining film industry colleagues on Thursday night (May 21) to meet with Mexican officials after a sudden bid by the government to eliminate one of the country’s two national funds sparked outrage.
Del Toro, who won the best director Oscar for The Shape Of Water two years ago, warned of a “devastation” that will remove support for future generations of storytellers should a proposal to remove the Fidecine fund get approval by lawmakers.
“After we thought we had arrived...
- 5/22/2020
- by 36¦Jeremy Kay¦54¦
- ScreenDaily
The writer/director of Tigers Are Not Afraid takes us through some of her most formative cinematic experiences.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
The Innocents (1961)
Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)
The Goonies (1985)
Gremlins (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ravenous (1999)
Raw (2016)
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
Macario (1960)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
Lake Mungo (2008)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Happy Feet (2006)
Lorenzo’s Oil (1992)
Babe (1995)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2014)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Blade Runner (1982)
Casablanca (1942)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Terrified a.k.a. Aterrados (2017)
Terrified (1963)
Gates of the Night (1946)
Other Notable Items
Rome TV series (2005-2007)
Jack Clayton
Ray Bradbury
Jonathan Pryce
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney
Shudder
Richard Donner
Steven Spielberg
The Donner Party
Antonia Bird
Guy Pearce
Robert Carlyle
Once Upon A Time TV series (2011-2018)
Julia Ducournau
Roberto Gavaldón
Gabriel Figueroa
The Criterion Channel
“The Third Guest” short story by B. Traven (1953)
The Haunting of Hill House...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983)
The Innocents (1961)
Tigers Are Not Afraid (2017)
The Goonies (1985)
Gremlins (1984)
Ghostbusters (1984)
Ravenous (1999)
Raw (2016)
T2 Trainspotting (2017)
Macario (1960)
Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
Lake Mungo (2008)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
Happy Feet (2006)
Lorenzo’s Oil (1992)
Babe (1995)
Mad Max: Fury Road (2014)
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Blade Runner (1982)
Casablanca (1942)
Gone With The Wind (1939)
Fanny and Alexander (1982)
Terrified a.k.a. Aterrados (2017)
Terrified (1963)
Gates of the Night (1946)
Other Notable Items
Rome TV series (2005-2007)
Jack Clayton
Ray Bradbury
Jonathan Pryce
Walt Disney Pictures
Walt Disney
Shudder
Richard Donner
Steven Spielberg
The Donner Party
Antonia Bird
Guy Pearce
Robert Carlyle
Once Upon A Time TV series (2011-2018)
Julia Ducournau
Roberto Gavaldón
Gabriel Figueroa
The Criterion Channel
“The Third Guest” short story by B. Traven (1953)
The Haunting of Hill House...
- 5/12/2020
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Filmmaker Fernando Frías de la Parra knows his way around the vibrant and the mundane, the eerie and the all-too-real, and fans of HBO’s unique series “Los Espookys” are well-acquainted with how that translates to his work behind the camera. Fresh off directing all six episodes of the fledgling series’ first season, Frías de la Parra is back with a different kind of vision of a world thrown off its axis.
At least, that’s how it feels for his central star, gang leader Ulises Samperio, who is forced to leave his Mexican hometown and flee for the hopeful safety of Queens. But even in a place meant to keep Ulises and his family from harm, nothing is easy and everything comes with a new kind of danger than what he’s used to.
Per the film’s official synopsis: “In the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico, a small street...
At least, that’s how it feels for his central star, gang leader Ulises Samperio, who is forced to leave his Mexican hometown and flee for the hopeful safety of Queens. But even in a place meant to keep Ulises and his family from harm, nothing is easy and everything comes with a new kind of danger than what he’s used to.
Per the film’s official synopsis: “In the mountains of Monterrey, Mexico, a small street...
- 5/11/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
To say that two-time Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto is in demand would be an understatement. Prieto has been a frequent collaborator with directors Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Ang Lee, Julie Taymor and Oliver Stone and has worked with Curtis Hanson, Cameron Crowe and Pedro Almodóvar. He has shot Martin Scorsese’s past three films: “The Wolf of Wall Street,” “Silence” (earning an Oscar nom) and this year’s “The Irishman.” He talked with Variety about the demands and rewards of shooting the current film.
What was the biggest challenge?
I think the schedule. It was well beyond 300 scenes, and we shot for 108 days. So we had to move frequently, often several times in one day. Add to that, roughly half the movie has visual effects with the de-aging techniques. That required a rig that we created for the three cameras needed, which created a lot of logistical questions on how to light the actors.
What was the biggest challenge?
I think the schedule. It was well beyond 300 scenes, and we shot for 108 days. So we had to move frequently, often several times in one day. Add to that, roughly half the movie has visual effects with the de-aging techniques. That required a rig that we created for the three cameras needed, which created a lot of logistical questions on how to light the actors.
- 12/19/2019
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Los Cabos — “The Twentieth Century,” Matthew Rankin’s crazed retelling of Canadian history, won the main Los Cabos Competition this Saturday, beating out a prestige lineup of some of the most notable festival standouts of the year.
The win at Los Cabos, whose competition is focused on movies from the U.S., Mexico and Canada, adds to “The Twentieth Century’s” Toronto Best Canadian First Feature prize for a feature made with high style, shot like 1940s melodrama, with a box-like Academy ratio.
Mexico Primero, a showcase of first or second-time Mexican features, was won by “The Dove and the Wolf,” the feature debut of Carlos Lenin, which world premiered at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Filmmakers of the Present. A young couple love story, “The Dove and the Wolf” is distinguished by its context, a grimy small town assailed by cartel violence, and its unyielding use of...
The win at Los Cabos, whose competition is focused on movies from the U.S., Mexico and Canada, adds to “The Twentieth Century’s” Toronto Best Canadian First Feature prize for a feature made with high style, shot like 1940s melodrama, with a box-like Academy ratio.
Mexico Primero, a showcase of first or second-time Mexican features, was won by “The Dove and the Wolf,” the feature debut of Carlos Lenin, which world premiered at this year’s Locarno Film Festival in Filmmakers of the Present. A young couple love story, “The Dove and the Wolf” is distinguished by its context, a grimy small town assailed by cartel violence, and its unyielding use of...
- 11/17/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
French-German broadcaster Arte is teaming with U.K.-based production house Vernon Films to co-produce Ilinca Călugăreanu’s non-scripted hybrid miniseries “Celluloid Dreams.”
Stefan Kloos’ German production company Kloos & Co, whose co-production credits take in Oscar-nominated documentary “Last Men in Aleppo,” is also on board for the project.
Romanian-born writer-director Călugăreanu is best known for her debut documentary feature, “Chuck Norris vs. Communism,” a 2015 Sundance player.
Vernon Films plans a Spring 2021 release for “Celluloid Dreams,” currently in pre-production.
The five-seg miniseries is one of the five episodic content projects selected for pitching at the upcoming edition of Los Cabos International Film Festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund sidebar.
“With a relatively modest budget for an independent production, the project is being financed through a mixture of broadcast and equity,” according to producer Mara Adina, Vernon Films co-founder alongside sister Ilinca Călugăreanu.
Chicken & Egg Pictures, the U.S.-based organisation...
Stefan Kloos’ German production company Kloos & Co, whose co-production credits take in Oscar-nominated documentary “Last Men in Aleppo,” is also on board for the project.
Romanian-born writer-director Călugăreanu is best known for her debut documentary feature, “Chuck Norris vs. Communism,” a 2015 Sundance player.
Vernon Films plans a Spring 2021 release for “Celluloid Dreams,” currently in pre-production.
The five-seg miniseries is one of the five episodic content projects selected for pitching at the upcoming edition of Los Cabos International Film Festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund sidebar.
“With a relatively modest budget for an independent production, the project is being financed through a mixture of broadcast and equity,” according to producer Mara Adina, Vernon Films co-founder alongside sister Ilinca Călugăreanu.
Chicken & Egg Pictures, the U.S.-based organisation...
- 11/11/2019
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
In 2018 Mexican director Andrés Kaiser’s debut feature “Feral” premiered and impressed at the Los Cabos Intl. Film Festival – notching a hat trick of awards including Art Kingdom Best Film, Fipresci Best Mexican film and México Primero best film – before embarking on an international, year-long festival run.
While visiting Madrid, where he studied at the prestigious Ecam film school, Kaiser shared details on his follow-up feature “Precious Blood,” which will similarly head to Los Cabos and pitch in the festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Films in Development Stage sidebar.
“Precious Blood” takes place in 18th century Mexico, and follows a priest sent to investigate a series of exceptional murders which have taken place inside one of the church’s convents.
The only surviving witness, a nun being held as part of the investigation, claims to be in direct contact with the devil who is subjecting her to nightmarish visions.
While visiting Madrid, where he studied at the prestigious Ecam film school, Kaiser shared details on his follow-up feature “Precious Blood,” which will similarly head to Los Cabos and pitch in the festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Films in Development Stage sidebar.
“Precious Blood” takes place in 18th century Mexico, and follows a priest sent to investigate a series of exceptional murders which have taken place inside one of the church’s convents.
The only surviving witness, a nun being held as part of the investigation, claims to be in direct contact with the devil who is subjecting her to nightmarish visions.
- 11/7/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
We are getting close to the much-anticipated eight edition of the Los Cabos International Film Festival, to be held from November 13 to 17. Right now, the Mexican festival – which last year screened such great films as Mandy, Lords of Chaos, BlacKkKlansman and Border – is calling for entries for both its Official Selection and its Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund (for projects in development). I spoke recently with Maru Garzón, the festival’s artistic director, who assured Los Cabos is “looking to maintain its profile, regarding the duration [five days] and the curatorial proposal, which has worked quite well.” In that sense, the 2019 Official Selection is divided again in two categories: Competencia Los Cabos and Mexico Primero. The first one is for feature-length productions or...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 7/3/2019
- Screen Anarchy
Spike Lee, Adam Driver collect tribute awards.
Andrés Kaiser’s Feral claimed the Cinemex – México Primero Award and several others at the seventh annual Los Cabos International Film Festival closing night gala ceremony at the weekend.
Spike Lee collected the Exceptional Contribution to Cinema History Tribute before presenting the Mexican premiere of BlacKkKlansman on Saturday (10), while one of the film’s stars Adam Driver received the Outstanding Work In Cinema from Terry Gilliam, who described him as “without a doubt, the best actor of his generation.”
Besides Feral’s triumph in the Cinemex – México Primero Award, the Los Cabos Competition...
Andrés Kaiser’s Feral claimed the Cinemex – México Primero Award and several others at the seventh annual Los Cabos International Film Festival closing night gala ceremony at the weekend.
Spike Lee collected the Exceptional Contribution to Cinema History Tribute before presenting the Mexican premiere of BlacKkKlansman on Saturday (10), while one of the film’s stars Adam Driver received the Outstanding Work In Cinema from Terry Gilliam, who described him as “without a doubt, the best actor of his generation.”
Besides Feral’s triumph in the Cinemex – México Primero Award, the Los Cabos Competition...
- 11/11/2018
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
New York-based Kino Lorber has taken North American rights to “The Chambermaid,” the feature debut of Mexico’s Lila Aviles that took the Best Film and the Warrior of the Press awards at Morelia Intl. Film Festival last week.
“The Chambermaid” will get an U.S. premiere on Nov. 10 at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles. A national theatrical release is scheduled for summer 2019.
Kino Lorber senior vice president Wendy Lidell said, “Using an incredible economy of means, Avilés makes palpable the inner life of an irrepressible soul imbued with dignity by actress Gabriela Cartol, who gives an unforgettable performance. ‘The Chambermaid’ gives new meaning, with a feminist twist, to our idea of the working class hero.”
Kino Lorber’s recent titles include Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons,” the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival; Jean Luc Godard’s “The Image Book”; and...
“The Chambermaid” will get an U.S. premiere on Nov. 10 at the AFI Fest in Los Angeles. A national theatrical release is scheduled for summer 2019.
Kino Lorber senior vice president Wendy Lidell said, “Using an incredible economy of means, Avilés makes palpable the inner life of an irrepressible soul imbued with dignity by actress Gabriela Cartol, who gives an unforgettable performance. ‘The Chambermaid’ gives new meaning, with a feminist twist, to our idea of the working class hero.”
Kino Lorber’s recent titles include Talal Derki’s “Of Fathers and Sons,” the Grand Jury Prize for World Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival; Jean Luc Godard’s “The Image Book”; and...
- 11/1/2018
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid — In a strong year for Mexican cinema – think Sebastián Hofmann’s “Time Share,” Alfonso Ruizpalacios’ “Museo” – the world premiere at Venice of the latest films by two of Mexico’s biggest names – Alfonso Cuarón and Carlos Reygadas – shouldn’t distract from another narrative: the ever increasing number of movies by Mexican women directors hitting major festivals, scoring deals and winning post-production plaudits.
“The Good Girls,” from Alejandra Marquez Abella (“Semana Santa”), selected for Toronto Platform, has just been picked up by Luxbox.
Now Lila Avilés’ “The Chambermaid” (“La camarista”), one of the most-awaited of Mexico’s feature film debuts, made the Toronto Discovery cut, announced Tuesday, after already being selected for the New Directors’ competition at later-September’s San Sebastian Festival in Spain. Variety has had exclusive access to its first trailer and poster, dropped by sales agent Alpha Violet, which suggests the film’s tenor and charm.
A winningly grounded fiction film,...
“The Good Girls,” from Alejandra Marquez Abella (“Semana Santa”), selected for Toronto Platform, has just been picked up by Luxbox.
Now Lila Avilés’ “The Chambermaid” (“La camarista”), one of the most-awaited of Mexico’s feature film debuts, made the Toronto Discovery cut, announced Tuesday, after already being selected for the New Directors’ competition at later-September’s San Sebastian Festival in Spain. Variety has had exclusive access to its first trailer and poster, dropped by sales agent Alpha Violet, which suggests the film’s tenor and charm.
A winningly grounded fiction film,...
- 8/22/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Following their impressively varied Main Slate section and Projections lineup, the full slate for Retrospective and Revivals at the 56th New York Film Festival have been announced. After last year’s Robert Mitchum retrospective, this year’s edition is split into three parts, paying tributing to the late Dan Talbot and Pierre Rissient, as well as spotlighting a trio of documentaries that delve into cinema history.
“For Pierre and Dan, two genuine heroes, everything to do with cinema was urgent. This year’s retrospective section pays tribute to both men, who passed away within six months of each other,” Nyff Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said.
Talbot, founder of New Yorker Films and longtime director of Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, will be honored with personal favorites from Bernardo Bertolucci, Straub-Huillet, Nagisa Oshima, Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and more. Meanwhile, producer, publicist, distributor, curator, and cinema polymath Pierre Rissient...
“For Pierre and Dan, two genuine heroes, everything to do with cinema was urgent. This year’s retrospective section pays tribute to both men, who passed away within six months of each other,” Nyff Director and Selection Committee Chair Kent Jones said.
Talbot, founder of New Yorker Films and longtime director of Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, will be honored with personal favorites from Bernardo Bertolucci, Straub-Huillet, Nagisa Oshima, Jean-Luc Godard, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and more. Meanwhile, producer, publicist, distributor, curator, and cinema polymath Pierre Rissient...
- 8/21/2018
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Two of Mexico’s most respected women film executives Alejandra Paulín and Maru Garzón, have been named joint heads of the country’s Los Cabos Intl. Film Festival, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing film events. Paulín will serve as executive director and Garzón as artistic director.
The appointments were announced Thursday by Los Cabos president Eduardo Sánchez Navarro and Alfonso Pasquel, president of Los Cabos Arte y Cultura A.C.
Paulín and Garzón replace Hugo Villa, Los Cabos Festival director at last year’s edition but named in February as director of Mexico’s Unam Filmoteca, a key national cinematheque.
Garzón and Paulín’s new joint leadership recognizes their role in the build of Los Cabos, launched as recently as 2012, as a key – as well as highly enjoyable – event working an ever more dynamic U.S.-Mexico-Canada movie axis. Both already held top jobs at Los Cabos, Garzón as programming director,...
The appointments were announced Thursday by Los Cabos president Eduardo Sánchez Navarro and Alfonso Pasquel, president of Los Cabos Arte y Cultura A.C.
Paulín and Garzón replace Hugo Villa, Los Cabos Festival director at last year’s edition but named in February as director of Mexico’s Unam Filmoteca, a key national cinematheque.
Garzón and Paulín’s new joint leadership recognizes their role in the build of Los Cabos, launched as recently as 2012, as a key – as well as highly enjoyable – event working an ever more dynamic U.S.-Mexico-Canada movie axis. Both already held top jobs at Los Cabos, Garzón as programming director,...
- 4/26/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
'Under the Volcano' screening: John Huston's 'quality' comeback featuring daring Albert Finney tour de force As part of its John Huston film series, the UCLA Film & Television Archive will be presenting the 1984 drama Under the Volcano, starring Albert Finney, Jacqueline Bisset, and Anthony Andrews, on July 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Billy Wilder Theater in the Los Angeles suburb of Westwood. Jacqueline Bisset is expected to be in attendance. Huston was 77, and suffering from emphysema for several years, when he returned to Mexico – the setting of both The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and The Night of the Iguana – to direct 28-year-old newcomer Guy Gallo's adaptation of English poet and novelist Malcolm Lowry's 1947 semi-autobiographical novel Under the Volcano, which until then had reportedly defied the screenwriting abilities of numerous professionals. Appropriately set on the Day of the Dead – 1938 – in the fictitious Mexican town of Quauhnahuac (the fact that it sounds like Cuernavaca...
- 7/21/2017
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Will somebody explain the sheep and the bear? Luis Buñuel really knows how to disturb people. This, his most characteristic surreal drama proposes an impossible, irrational situation – which isn’t all that different from the reality we know. Petty social rules, jealousies and bitterness make life hell for group of dinner guests stuck with each other, caught in an existential trap.
The Exterminating Angel
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 459
1962 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 93 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 6, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Augusto Benedicio, José Baviera, Antonio Bravo, Claudio Brook, Rosa Elena Durgel, Lucy Gallardo, Tito Junco .
Cinematography Gabriel Figueroa
Film Editor Carlos Savage
Original Music Raúl Lavista
Based on a story by Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel
Produced by Gustavo Alatriste
Written and Directed by Luis Buñuel
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
That intransigent rebel imp Luis Buñuel never mellowed — after ten or so...
The Exterminating Angel
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 459
1962 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 93 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 6, 2016 / 39.95
Starring Silvia Pinal, Jacqueline Andere, Augusto Benedicio, José Baviera, Antonio Bravo, Claudio Brook, Rosa Elena Durgel, Lucy Gallardo, Tito Junco .
Cinematography Gabriel Figueroa
Film Editor Carlos Savage
Original Music Raúl Lavista
Based on a story by Luis Alcoriza, Luis Buñuel
Produced by Gustavo Alatriste
Written and Directed by Luis Buñuel
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
That intransigent rebel imp Luis Buñuel never mellowed — after ten or so...
- 12/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Juan Andrés Arango’s migrant drama claimed the México Primero prize and Andrea Arnold’s road movie prevailed in the Competencia de Los Cabos category as the fifth annual Los Cabos International Film Festival closed on Saturday.
Both films received Mxn $200k (roughly Usd $9.6k), while Tamara And The Ladybug by Lucía Carrera took the Fipresci México Primero Award as well as the Usd $12k Art Kingdom Trailer Award presented by Art Kingdom Showbiz Agency.
Beauties Of The Night by Maria José Cuevas took the Mxn $200k Cinemex Audience prize, and Kris Avedisian’s Donald Cried claimed the Usd $15k Labodigital Incentive For Distribution award.
Three filmmakers each earned a Mxn $150k (Usd $7.2k) scholarship under the auspices of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund: Cómprame Un Revólver by Julio Hernández Cordón; Alicia by Michael Rowe; and Monsters And Men by Reinaldo M. Green.
The Usd $160k Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund - Labodigital Awards went to: The Rosenbergs...
Both films received Mxn $200k (roughly Usd $9.6k), while Tamara And The Ladybug by Lucía Carrera took the Fipresci México Primero Award as well as the Usd $12k Art Kingdom Trailer Award presented by Art Kingdom Showbiz Agency.
Beauties Of The Night by Maria José Cuevas took the Mxn $200k Cinemex Audience prize, and Kris Avedisian’s Donald Cried claimed the Usd $15k Labodigital Incentive For Distribution award.
Three filmmakers each earned a Mxn $150k (Usd $7.2k) scholarship under the auspices of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund: Cómprame Un Revólver by Julio Hernández Cordón; Alicia by Michael Rowe; and Monsters And Men by Reinaldo M. Green.
The Usd $160k Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund - Labodigital Awards went to: The Rosenbergs...
- 11/13/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Amat Escalante’s The Untamed (pictured) and Andrea Arnold’s American Honey will compete for the Cinemax Award for the best competition film at the Mexican festival, set to run from November 9-13.
The other selections in the Competencia Los Cabos main competition strand are: Antonio Campos’ Christine, Kristopher Avedisian’s Donald Cried, Matt Johnson’s Operation Avalanche, Gabe Klinger’s Porto, Rafi Pitts’ Soy Nero, Joey Klein’s The Other Half and Kim Nguyen’s Two Lovers And A Bear.
Competing for top honours in Mexico Primero are: Maria José Cuevas’ Beauties Of The Night, Sebastián Hiriart’s Carroña, Rodrigo Cervantes’ Los Paisages, Lucía Carreras’ Tamara y La Catarina, Ricardo Silva and Omar Guzmán’s William, The New Judo Master, and Juan Andrés Arango’s X500.
Festival heads said most of the Mexico Primero entries came through the festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund.
The winners of the Cinemax Award for best film in the Competencia...
The other selections in the Competencia Los Cabos main competition strand are: Antonio Campos’ Christine, Kristopher Avedisian’s Donald Cried, Matt Johnson’s Operation Avalanche, Gabe Klinger’s Porto, Rafi Pitts’ Soy Nero, Joey Klein’s The Other Half and Kim Nguyen’s Two Lovers And A Bear.
Competing for top honours in Mexico Primero are: Maria José Cuevas’ Beauties Of The Night, Sebastián Hiriart’s Carroña, Rodrigo Cervantes’ Los Paisages, Lucía Carreras’ Tamara y La Catarina, Ricardo Silva and Omar Guzmán’s William, The New Judo Master, and Juan Andrés Arango’s X500.
Festival heads said most of the Mexico Primero entries came through the festival’s Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund.
The winners of the Cinemax Award for best film in the Competencia...
- 10/11/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Death doesn't take a holiday in this, the granddaddy of movies about the woeful duties of the Grim Reaper. Fritz Lang's heavy-duty Expressionist fable is as German as they get -- a morbid folk tale with an emotionally powerful finish. Destiny Blu-ray Kino Classics 1921 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 98 min. / Street Date August 30, 2016 / Der müde Tod / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Lil Dagover, Walter Janssen, Bernhard Goetzke, Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Georg John. Cinematography Bruno Mondi, Erich Nitzschmann, Herrmann Saalfrank, Bruno Timm, Fritz Arno Wagner Film Editor Fritz Lang Written by Fritz Lang, Thea von Harbou Produced by Erich Pommer Directed by Fritz Lang
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari takes the prize for the most influential work of early German Expressionism, but coming in a close second is the film in which Fritz Lang first got his act (completely) together, 1921's Destiny (Der müde Tod). A wholly cinematic...
- 8/6/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
“Diversity” may be a big buzzword for the film business these days, but for a lot of organizations, the challenges implied by the term are nothing new. While the Academy announced last week that it was inviting 683 new members—many from diverse backgrounds—to their vaunted club, the independent film side of the industry has long been fighting the good fight, with programs, grants and foundations focused on creating a more equitable entertainment ecosystem.
But how well are such initiatives working? “If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to realize there are a lot of well-meaning programs out there that are not having an impact,” said Film Independent’s Josh Welsh. “I’m at a point of great frustration. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished, but at the same time, these studies continue to come out every year that say the numbers in the industry are, as a whole,...
But how well are such initiatives working? “If we’re honest with ourselves, we have to realize there are a lot of well-meaning programs out there that are not having an impact,” said Film Independent’s Josh Welsh. “I’m at a point of great frustration. I am proud of what we’ve accomplished, but at the same time, these studies continue to come out every year that say the numbers in the industry are, as a whole,...
- 7/7/2016
- by Anthony Kaufman
- Indiewire
Late this summer, a doorway to Guillermo del Toro's imagination will be opened when a new exhibit, "At Home with Monsters", debuts at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma). To celebrate the new showcase of what inspires the filmmaker, Insight Editions will release Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters: Inside His Films, Notebooks, and Collections, a new art book featuring photos of the exhibit, pages from del Toro's journals, and insightful interviews from art experts.
Ahead of its release on August 30th (the same day del Toro's exhibit opens at the Lacma), the Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters art book is teased in preview pages below, and we also have the press release with full details on the hardcover:
Press Release: In 2016, a new exhibit on the work of visionary director Guillermo del Toro will open at the Los Angeles County Museum...
Ahead of its release on August 30th (the same day del Toro's exhibit opens at the Lacma), the Guillermo del Toro: At Home with Monsters art book is teased in preview pages below, and we also have the press release with full details on the hardcover:
Press Release: In 2016, a new exhibit on the work of visionary director Guillermo del Toro will open at the Los Angeles County Museum...
- 6/30/2016
- by Derek Anderson
- DailyDead
Luis Buñuel's most direct film about revolutionary politics brandishes few if any surreal touches in its clash between French star Gérard Philipe and the Mexican legend María Félix. Borrowing the climax of the opera Tosca, it's an intelligent study of how not to effect change in a corrupt political regime. La fièvre monte à El Pao Region A+B Blu-ray + Pal DVD Pathé (Fr) 1959 / B&W / 1:37 flat (should be 1:66 widescreen) / 96 min. / Los Ambiciosos; "Fever Mounts at El Pao" / Street Date December 4, 2013 / available at Amazon France / Eur 26,27 Starring Gérard Philipe, María Félix, Jean Servais, M.A. Soler, Raúl Dantés, Domingo Soler, Víctor Junco, Roberto Cañedo, Enrique Lucero, Pilar Pellicer, David Reynoso, Andrés Soler. Cinematography Gabriel Figueroa Assistant Director Juan Luis Buñuel Original Music Paul Misraki Written by Luis Buñuel, Luis Alcoriza, Charles Dorat, Louis Sapin from a novel by Henri Castillou Produced by Jacques Bar, Óscar Dancigers, Gregorio Walerstein...
- 5/21/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Plus: Los Cabos, Tfi, Gabriel Figueroa, Labodigital renew association; D Films picks up Canadian rights to Oasis doc; and more…
June Pictures will produce and finance The Florida Project from Sean Baker, the writer-director of last year’s acclaimed Indie Spirit best feature nominee (pictured).
The Florida Project centres on a precocious seven-year-old and her friends who enjoy a summer filled with adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Baker reteams with Chris Bergoch on the screenplay but will not repeat another element of Tangerine and will shoot on 35mm rather than the iPhone.
Production will commence in Florida this summer on the June Pictures, Cre Films, and Freestyle Picture Company project. ICM Partners represents Us rights and cast will be announced shortly.
The Los Cabos Film Festival has renewed its association with the Tribeca Film Institute and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund and announced on Tuesday that Gaz Alazraki’s Cabos Discovery 2015 project Casi El...
June Pictures will produce and finance The Florida Project from Sean Baker, the writer-director of last year’s acclaimed Indie Spirit best feature nominee (pictured).
The Florida Project centres on a precocious seven-year-old and her friends who enjoy a summer filled with adventure while the adults around them struggle with hard times.
Baker reteams with Chris Bergoch on the screenplay but will not repeat another element of Tangerine and will shoot on 35mm rather than the iPhone.
Production will commence in Florida this summer on the June Pictures, Cre Films, and Freestyle Picture Company project. ICM Partners represents Us rights and cast will be announced shortly.
The Los Cabos Film Festival has renewed its association with the Tribeca Film Institute and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund and announced on Tuesday that Gaz Alazraki’s Cabos Discovery 2015 project Casi El...
- 4/19/2016
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
It's the John Ford film you never heard of, not because it's bad, but because it's a little confused. Richard Greene, David Niven and an emotional George Sanders (!) dedicate their lives to clearing their father's name of a smear by international arms smugglers! Their spirited companion Loretta Young behaves almost as if this were a screwball comedy. So does the director! Ford aficionados will be fascinated. Four Men and a Prayer 20th Century Fox Cinema Archives 1938 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 85 min. / Street Date December 15, 2015 / 19.98 Starring Loretta Young, Richard Greene, George Sanders, David Niven, C. Aubrey Smith. J. Edward Bromberg, William Henry, John Carradine, Alan Hale, Reginald Denny, Berton Churchill, Barry Fitzgerald, Chris-Pin Martin. Cinematography Franz Planer Film Editor Louis R. Loeffler Written by Richard Sherman, Sonya Levien, Walter Ferris from a novel by David Garth Produced by Kenneth Macgowan Directed by John Ford
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
We all...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
We all...
- 1/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kyzza Terrazas’ Somos Lengua and Rodrigo Cervantes’ Los Paisajes each took home post-production services worth $52,000 at the Mexican festival on Friday night.
Imcine director and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund promoter Jorge Sánchez Sosa presented the awards at the Los Cabos International Film Festival gala event.
A jury comprised of Cristina Garza from Mundial, Santiago de la Paz of Nómadas and Cynthia Wiesner of Wiesner Distribution selected the first prize recipients.
The Fund honours outstanding cinematographers, offers support every year for projects in development and, in collaboration with Labodigital, supports films in post.
A jury comprised of Molly O’Keefe from the Tribeca Film Institute, Ségolène Roederer of Québec Cinéma and Mirsad Purivatra of the Sarajevo Film Festival awarded second prizes in the amount of $5,000 to seven development projects.
The recipients were: Marcelino Islas’ History Lessons; Gustavo Gamou’s F.B.I.; Pau Ortiz’ Outside Of Prison; Luciana Kaplan’s Rush Hour; Andrea Pallaoro’s Beauty Salon; [link...
Imcine director and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund promoter Jorge Sánchez Sosa presented the awards at the Los Cabos International Film Festival gala event.
A jury comprised of Cristina Garza from Mundial, Santiago de la Paz of Nómadas and Cynthia Wiesner of Wiesner Distribution selected the first prize recipients.
The Fund honours outstanding cinematographers, offers support every year for projects in development and, in collaboration with Labodigital, supports films in post.
A jury comprised of Molly O’Keefe from the Tribeca Film Institute, Ségolène Roederer of Québec Cinéma and Mirsad Purivatra of the Sarajevo Film Festival awarded second prizes in the amount of $5,000 to seven development projects.
The recipients were: Marcelino Islas’ History Lessons; Gustavo Gamou’s F.B.I.; Pau Ortiz’ Outside Of Prison; Luciana Kaplan’s Rush Hour; Andrea Pallaoro’s Beauty Salon; [link...
- 11/13/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Los Cabos International Film Festival offers a series of Industry activities aiming to link and strengthen the relationship and possibilities for cooperation between the film industries of Mexico, the U.S. and Canada.
In order to bring together leading members of the film industry from the three countries, opening doors for producers, directors, distributors and active members of the film industry,catalyzing new and better opportunities for development of their projects, the following activities are now calling for entries until July 30.
Cabos Discovery: projects at development stage compete for Us$ 43,000 awards formed by:
Cabos Discovery Meeting: Projects in development stage Mexico, U.S. and Canada. Us$ 8,000 award Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund: 7 projects in development stage Mexico Us$ 5,000 prize each. Cabos TV : area devoted to TV Content. Cabos in Progress: feature films at post-production stage compete for Usd 189,000 formed by:
Cabos in Progress Prize: Six films from among all the projects enrolled in this platform will be chosen. Renowned film-industry professionals will form a jury that will award a Usd 10,000 cash prize to the best film. Fox+ Prize: The television channel will pay an advance of Usd 30,000 for the rights to broadcast one of the participating films in Latin America via its channel window. Los Cabos Goes to Cannes Prize: Four films from among all the projects enrolled in this platform will be chosen to take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work. Los Cabos Film Festival will cover transport expenses, and the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film will provide industry accreditation for the filmmakers to take part in this renowned market. Chemistry Prize: For the second consecutive year, one of the participating films will be award with a Usd 45,000 post-production prize. Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Prize: For the third year running, two films will be awarded with a support worth Usd 52,000 each in post-production services provided by Labodigital. And Meet Your Neighbors: Discussion Tables, Sales Office and more.
In order to bring together leading members of the film industry from the three countries, opening doors for producers, directors, distributors and active members of the film industry,catalyzing new and better opportunities for development of their projects, the following activities are now calling for entries until July 30.
Cabos Discovery: projects at development stage compete for Us$ 43,000 awards formed by:
Cabos Discovery Meeting: Projects in development stage Mexico, U.S. and Canada. Us$ 8,000 award Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund: 7 projects in development stage Mexico Us$ 5,000 prize each. Cabos TV : area devoted to TV Content. Cabos in Progress: feature films at post-production stage compete for Usd 189,000 formed by:
Cabos in Progress Prize: Six films from among all the projects enrolled in this platform will be chosen. Renowned film-industry professionals will form a jury that will award a Usd 10,000 cash prize to the best film. Fox+ Prize: The television channel will pay an advance of Usd 30,000 for the rights to broadcast one of the participating films in Latin America via its channel window. Los Cabos Goes to Cannes Prize: Four films from among all the projects enrolled in this platform will be chosen to take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work. Los Cabos Film Festival will cover transport expenses, and the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film will provide industry accreditation for the filmmakers to take part in this renowned market. Chemistry Prize: For the second consecutive year, one of the participating films will be award with a Usd 45,000 post-production prize. Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Prize: For the third year running, two films will be awarded with a support worth Usd 52,000 each in post-production services provided by Labodigital. And Meet Your Neighbors: Discussion Tables, Sales Office and more.
- 7/6/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
The Los Cabos International Film Festival initiative will present five awards at this year’s event, set to run from November 11-15 in Mexico.
A Cabos In Progress jury will select a winner from six Mexican documentary or fiction films at post-production stage in need of financing. The chosen project will receive $10,000.
Meanwhile Fox+ will offer $30,000 for broadcasting rights to one of the films and guarantee airtime on its channels in Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding Brazil.
For the second consecutive year the Chemistry prize will present a $45,000 post-production award.
Under the auspices of the Los Cabos Goes To Cannes Prize, four films from all projects enrolled in the section will take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work to industry attendees.
The Los Cabos International Film Festival will cover transport expenses while the Marché du Film will provide industry accreditation.
For the third consecutive year the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Prize will award...
A Cabos In Progress jury will select a winner from six Mexican documentary or fiction films at post-production stage in need of financing. The chosen project will receive $10,000.
Meanwhile Fox+ will offer $30,000 for broadcasting rights to one of the films and guarantee airtime on its channels in Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding Brazil.
For the second consecutive year the Chemistry prize will present a $45,000 post-production award.
Under the auspices of the Los Cabos Goes To Cannes Prize, four films from all projects enrolled in the section will take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work to industry attendees.
The Los Cabos International Film Festival will cover transport expenses while the Marché du Film will provide industry accreditation.
For the third consecutive year the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund Prize will award...
- 6/29/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Macario, just screened in Edinburgh International Film Festival's Focus on Mexico season, is a relatively well-known film by the great and prolific Roberto Gavaldón, but that in itself means little, since even in cinephile circles many film-lovers have never heard of him.Gavaldón was one of the top directors of Mexican cinema's golden age, along with Emilio Fernández and Tito Davison (Buñuel was always something of an outsider). While his work includes the elements of melodrama, social realism and a tinge of film noir which characterise much of this period, he also incorporates a streak of what might be called magic realism. and this is at the forefront of Macario.The first Mexican film nominated for an Oscar, losing out to The Virgin Spring, which bizarrely also features a magic spring bubbling up under mysterious and perhaps divinely-inspired circumstances, Macario derives from a story by the mysterious B. Traven (Treasure...
- 6/25/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
While the name Gabriel Figueroa may not be a familiar one to many, even those with a stronger affinity for filmmaking and the art behind it, New York’s own Film Forum is hoping to change that.
On June 5, the theater began a career spanning retrospective surrounding the work of iconic cinematographer and Mexican film industry legend Gabriel Figueroa. Taking a look at 19 of the photographer’s films, the series is running in conjunction with the new exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, entitled Under The Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa – Art And Film.
Best known as a pioneer of Mexican cinema, primarily with his work alongside director Emilio Fernandez, Figueroa’s work was as varied as they come. His work with Fernandez is without a doubt this retrospective’s highlight, particularly films like Wildflower. One of the many times Mexican cinema’s “Big Four” worked together, the film saw the...
On June 5, the theater began a career spanning retrospective surrounding the work of iconic cinematographer and Mexican film industry legend Gabriel Figueroa. Taking a look at 19 of the photographer’s films, the series is running in conjunction with the new exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, entitled Under The Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa – Art And Film.
Best known as a pioneer of Mexican cinema, primarily with his work alongside director Emilio Fernandez, Figueroa’s work was as varied as they come. His work with Fernandez is without a doubt this retrospective’s highlight, particularly films like Wildflower. One of the many times Mexican cinema’s “Big Four” worked together, the film saw the...
- 6/9/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Through the platform of Los Cabos Goes to Cannes, Los Cabos International Film Festival announced its partnership with the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film, the most important film market in the world.
Los Cabos Film Festival will select four participating Mexican films at the post-production stage in Cabos in Progress 2015 – chosen from Cabos in Progress and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund post-production section - to take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work to producers, distributors, sales agents, services companies, film funds and international film festivals’ representatives attending the Cannes Film Festival.
Cabos in Progress is a forum for feature length documentary or fiction films at post-production stage, produced or co-produced by Mexico.
The main objective of Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund–which will be holding its third edition this year– is to support projects at the development stage, and also projects at the post-production stage, in collaboration with the Mexican company, Labodigital.
The Festival offers a series of Industry Activities aimed at strengthening links, and increasing collaboration, among filmmakers in Mexico, U.S and Canada, where prominent film-industry representatives will be gathering once again at the 4th Los Cabos Film Festival, to take place from November 11th to the 15th, with the purpose of creating more opportunities to finish their projects.
Call for entries for Cabos in Progress and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund are open from last May 1st until July 31st, 2015.
Los Cabos Film Festival and the Marché du Film will offer support to the four filmmaker’s to attend Cannes' Market.
Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of the Marché du Film expressed: "We are pleased to build on a new partnership with Los Cabos Film Festival, which has developed top level industry programs and activities during its three years of existence. This year in Cannes, Mexico came strong as the co-organizer of the Marché Opening Night and with many other activities at the Producers Network and in their Pavilion. The Marché has a strong relationship with Latin America, in Argentina with Ventana Sur and in Brazil with Films from Rio. The Marché is always willing to open spaces to encourage film making, and I am very pleased that we can support Mexican films through the Los Cabos Goes to Cannes platform. So we are very excited to do it!”
Alonso Aguilar-Castillo, Director of Los Cabos International Film Festival, said: "Los Cabos Goes To Cannes will become a partnership with Marché du Film, allowing us to strengthen our role as a trampoline to bold Mexican filmmakers who have the courage to play in the international arena. For three years we have been bringing the best of international industry to Cabos... It's time to bring the best of Cabos to the top markets."...
Los Cabos Film Festival will select four participating Mexican films at the post-production stage in Cabos in Progress 2015 – chosen from Cabos in Progress and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund post-production section - to take part in the 2016 Marché du Film and show their work to producers, distributors, sales agents, services companies, film funds and international film festivals’ representatives attending the Cannes Film Festival.
Cabos in Progress is a forum for feature length documentary or fiction films at post-production stage, produced or co-produced by Mexico.
The main objective of Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund–which will be holding its third edition this year– is to support projects at the development stage, and also projects at the post-production stage, in collaboration with the Mexican company, Labodigital.
The Festival offers a series of Industry Activities aimed at strengthening links, and increasing collaboration, among filmmakers in Mexico, U.S and Canada, where prominent film-industry representatives will be gathering once again at the 4th Los Cabos Film Festival, to take place from November 11th to the 15th, with the purpose of creating more opportunities to finish their projects.
Call for entries for Cabos in Progress and Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund are open from last May 1st until July 31st, 2015.
Los Cabos Film Festival and the Marché du Film will offer support to the four filmmaker’s to attend Cannes' Market.
Jérôme Paillard, Executive Director of the Marché du Film expressed: "We are pleased to build on a new partnership with Los Cabos Film Festival, which has developed top level industry programs and activities during its three years of existence. This year in Cannes, Mexico came strong as the co-organizer of the Marché Opening Night and with many other activities at the Producers Network and in their Pavilion. The Marché has a strong relationship with Latin America, in Argentina with Ventana Sur and in Brazil with Films from Rio. The Marché is always willing to open spaces to encourage film making, and I am very pleased that we can support Mexican films through the Los Cabos Goes to Cannes platform. So we are very excited to do it!”
Alonso Aguilar-Castillo, Director of Los Cabos International Film Festival, said: "Los Cabos Goes To Cannes will become a partnership with Marché du Film, allowing us to strengthen our role as a trampoline to bold Mexican filmmakers who have the courage to play in the international arena. For three years we have been bringing the best of international industry to Cabos... It's time to bring the best of Cabos to the top markets."...
- 5/18/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Los Cabos Goes To Cannes cements partnership on the Croisette.
Mexico’s fast-rising Los Cabos International Film Festival, which this year hosts its fourth edition over November 11-15, will showcase four participating Mexican films in post at the 2016 Marché.
The projects will be selected from Cabos In Progress, a platform for features in post that are produced or co-produced by Mexico supported by the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund and film services group Labodigital.
Calls for entry for Cabos In Progress and the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund are open until July 31.
Marché executive director Jerome Paillard said: “This year in Cannes, Mexico is coming strong as the co-organiser of the Marché Opening Night and with many other activities at the Producers Network and in their pavilion.
“The Marché has a strong relationship with Latin America, in Argentina with Ventana Sur and in Brazil with Films From Rio. The Marché is always willing to open spaces to encourage filmmaking...
Mexico’s fast-rising Los Cabos International Film Festival, which this year hosts its fourth edition over November 11-15, will showcase four participating Mexican films in post at the 2016 Marché.
The projects will be selected from Cabos In Progress, a platform for features in post that are produced or co-produced by Mexico supported by the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund and film services group Labodigital.
Calls for entry for Cabos In Progress and the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund are open until July 31.
Marché executive director Jerome Paillard said: “This year in Cannes, Mexico is coming strong as the co-organiser of the Marché Opening Night and with many other activities at the Producers Network and in their pavilion.
“The Marché has a strong relationship with Latin America, in Argentina with Ventana Sur and in Brazil with Films From Rio. The Marché is always willing to open spaces to encourage filmmaking...
- 5/8/2015
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
In the new La Furia Umana: a symposium on the future of cinema plus articles on Harun Farocki, Jerry Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. The new Brooklyn Rail features pieces on Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God and J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry, exhibitions of work by Michael Snow and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and an interview with John Giorno. Also today: With Mad Max: Fury Road opening next month, a Ballardian primer to the Mad Max Universe; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Leni Riefenstahl; Robert Greene on Steve James's Hoop Dreams and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom; and lots more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/6/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In the new La Furia Umana: a symposium on the future of cinema plus articles on Harun Farocki, Jerry Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. The new Brooklyn Rail features pieces on Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God and J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry, exhibitions of work by Michael Snow and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and an interview with John Giorno. Also today: With Mad Max: Fury Road opening next month, a Ballardian primer to the Mad Max Universe; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Leni Riefenstahl; Robert Greene on Steve James's Hoop Dreams and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom; and lots more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/6/2015
- Keyframe
Post-Nearly Press has released two book-length interviews with Iain Sinclair and Chris Petit. Also in today's roundup of news and views: A review of and two excerpts from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s fantasmagorical memoir, Where the Bird Sings Best; the Quietus on Wojciech Has's The Saragossa Manuscript; an oral history of Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan at 30; Paul Thomas Anderson's conversation with Jonathan Demme; more interviews with feminist filmmaker Vivienne Dick, Wim Wenders, Errol Morris, Noah Baumbach and David Zellner; the New York Times on cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 3/29/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Post-Nearly Press has released two book-length interviews with Iain Sinclair and Chris Petit. Also in today's roundup of news and views: A review of and two excerpts from Alejandro Jodorowsky’s fantasmagorical memoir, Where the Bird Sings Best; the Quietus on Wojciech Has's The Saragossa Manuscript; an oral history of Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan at 30; Paul Thomas Anderson's conversation with Jonathan Demme; more interviews with feminist filmmaker Vivienne Dick, Wim Wenders, Errol Morris, Noah Baumbach and David Zellner; the New York Times on cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 3/29/2015
- Keyframe
Los Cabos International Film Festival took place this month of November. It was a brave move to keep it going after Cabo had been so hard hit by Hurricane Odile with winds of 125mph less than a month earlier. The vast destruction in our part of town was quickly being repaired though traces remained visible and repairs still to be done necessitated cutting the normal invitation list by half and doubling up hotel rooms for a few unlucky journalists. That being said, there were 15,000 attending the festival. Volunteers wore the worthy words on their t-shirts: #Unstoppable, and they were that.
For all the infrastructure problems of the city in the midst of rebuilding itself, the festival seemed to thrive with all sorts of invitees showing up from all over the world. It seemed like gala events, panels, master classes, coproduction meetings, works in progress, screenings and interviews were constantly taking place. It was a great team and we all felt part of it.
The festival is overseen by the executive board members Eduardo Sánchez Navarro, Alfonso Pascal Barcenas, Scott Cross and Sean Cross (who also founded Vail Film Festival) and is organized by the festival team of Alonso Aguilar (General Director), Alejandra Paulin (General Coordinator) - who was a great market director in Guadajalara before coming here, Maru Garzon (Head of Programming), Ana Molinar Trujillo (Communication Manager), and Monica Herrera (Film Programmer). My friend from Guadalajara, normally an English teacher, Fabian Cruz was also there working for the festival.
When Eduardo Sánchez Navarro Redo remembers how he first came to Los Cabos, there is no doubt in his mind that destiny and luck played an important part. When he married his wife 30 years ago, he decided to travel along the entire Pacific Coast, from Acapulco to Mazatlan, where he crossed over to La Paz eventually driving to Los Cabos. The beauty of the area impressed him and it was during this trip that he and his wife decided to buy a vacation home in Los Cabos, thus beginning a distinguished career as a principal player and developer of what is Los Cabos today. Over the course of more than 20 years, his company, Grupo Questro, has emerged as one of the most highly respected developers in all of Mexico. He, together with Juan Gallardo Thurlow, Scott Cross, and Sean Cross, founded the festival in 2012.
My job as a journalist was to explore and write, hard to do when you are having such fun 24/7. We journalists were all in one hotel where we were given space and time to bond. Travel writers mixed with trade writers: from Film Journal David Noh, whose article is worth sharing here, my colleagues Peter Rainer from NPR and Christian Science Monitor, Anne Thompson from Thompson on Hollywood on Indiewire, Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com and many others met and mixed. Also Ira Deutchman of Colombia University Film School and Emerging Pictures and Robin Brock of Creative Coalition were there with time to share dinners.
The filmmakers, in another hotel, mixed by day and at the communal lunches and parties. I will write more on them in an upcoming blog! After all, filmmakers are the backbone of our industry. Without them, we have nothing!
The agents, mostly from CAA, were placed in another hotel, luxurious and far away. As someone said, Cabos is like Cannes, only in November. If so, perhaps they were at the Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes. (Actually they were at Hacienda Beach Club & Residences) CAA has always been an honored part of this festival. I have heard that that is because someone with lots of money from Mexico invests it in cinema through CAA and even started the festival. That is, however, pure conjecture. Under the guidance of CAA agent, Micah Green, people can be assured that the directions he sees and the decisions he makes about investing private individuals' capital into filmed entertainment is priceless. I could think of no one I would trust more --in this untrustworthy business we are in-- than Micah.
At least two other agents – Bec Smith and Rena Ronson from UTA -- were also there. Rena and Micah were on the Film Financing Panel moderated by Variety’s expert in all things Iberoamerican and my idol, John Hopewell. Other participants on the Film Finance Panel were Jonathan King, Evp of Production at Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media whose partnership with Canana formed Participant PanAmerican production fund. “No” by Pablo Lorrain was their first investment. Pp also financed "El Ardor" which played in Cannes and “Cesar Chavez”, directed by Diego Luna. Also on the panel were Mark Musselman of Canada’s 10X2yinc, the exec producer of “Eastern Promises” and most recently of “Remember” by Atom Egoyan which was also produced by Robert Lantos and son, also in Los Cabos. It went into production in 2014 and is tipped for Cannes. Other panelists included Raul Del Alto of Mexico’s Ag Studios (Itaca Films Mexico, Itaca Films USA, Itaca Films Colombia and Itaca Filkms Brazil, and Rena Ronson of UTA who, like Micah Green of CAA focuses on global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for Independents and co-financed features and is fluent in Spanish because of her long time experience with Latin America.
At one point I looked up and found the European fund chiefs there as well, Laufey Gudjonsdottir from Iceland (where Interstellar was filmed), Katriel Schory from Israel Film Fund and Edith Sepp-Dallas from the Estonian Film Institute. They were there for Bpx. Best Practice Exchange is an initiative that brings together the leaders of film funding agencies from across the world to take part in high-level-workshops – one or two each year – designed to promote new standards of excellence in the provision of public funding for the support of film production, development and distribution. The aim of Bpx is to ensure that policies and procedures adopted by film funding agencies will act together, positively and proactively, to stimulate and sustain practices of international coproduction and cofinancing worldwide.
Triggered by the situation in which filmmaking outside the main production centers of Hollywood and Bollywood now finds itself, Bpx was created by Simon Perry, president of Ace (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), in collaboration with Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund. It held its first workshop in February 2013 in Israel, and two further workshops in Toronto (September 2013) and Berlin (February 2014) and this was the third! Bravo!
Among the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. films that showed, the winners were as follow:
Mexico First
Mexico First winning film was ¨Llevate mis amores” ("All of Me") by Arturo Gonzalez. The film narrates the story of the generosity of the women of Las Patronas who feed the immigrants who ride La Bestia. The director was awarded a cash Prize of Usd $15,000. This film made me cry. I thought of it again when reading the L.A. Times article about the murder of Adrian Rodriguez and his assistant, Mexican good Samaritans who dedicated their scarce resources to feeding Central American migrants passing by on La Bestia, which is what the women in this movie do. And one of the women was at the festival too.
Los Cabos Competition
The Los Cabos Competition winner was “Güeros” by Alonso Ruizpalacios, also a winner at the Berlinale, Jerusalem Film Festival, Tribeca, Toronto and San Sebastian. Being sold internationally by Mundial, the joint venture of Canana (again!) and Im Global, the film has sold to Kino Lorber for U.S., Cannibal for Mexico, Dreams Hill for Italy, Noori for So. Korea and Maison Motion for Taiwan … "Güeros" is the undeniable triumph of a nouveau director who dares to pay homage the French New Wave on a wild detective hunt through Mexico City. In light of the 43 murdered students, this film, about students on strike, strikes a chord within the watcher. The film´s producer won a Usd $15,000 cash prize.
Work In Progress Mexico
The second Work in Progress Mexico prize was awarded to "Los Herederos," by Jorge Hernandez, a film that describes adolescent effervescence and idleness through a group of friends who spend their vacations adrenaline-seeking through parties, sex and alcohol. The winner received a Usd $10,000 cash prize.
Mexico-usa-canada Co-production Forum
The winner of the first Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum was also announced: "Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo, based on the real life story of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Investigación Espacial e Investigación Astronómica of Zambia. Writer- Director Frances Bodomo received a Usd $8,000 cash prize. It also received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Mexico First: Fox +
In its second year running the México Primero: Fox+ chose one of the films that participated to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The México Primero: Fox+ prize consists of Usd $40,000 and was awarded to Isaac Ezban´s "El Incidente" ("The Incident"), two M.C. Escher-maze-like parallel stories about characters trapped in illogical endless spaces: two brothers and a detective locked on an infinite staircase, and a family locked on an infinite road… for a very long time. The international sales agent, Shoreline, will be showing the film at Ventana Sur December 3rd at 17:00 at Cinemark 3.
Work In Progress Mexico Fox +
In its second year running as well, Work in Progress México Fox+ selected a participating film to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The Usd $30,000 prize was awarded to Katina Medina Mora’s "Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz", produced by Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann.
Work In Progress Mexico Chemistry
This Third edition of the Festival also witnessed the first Work In Progress México –Chemistry award. Chemistry post-production studios granted the winner, Jorge Hernandez’s "Los Herederos", $45,000 Usd in color correction services.
Mexico – USA – Canada Splendor Omnia Mantarraya Co-production Forum
On its first year running, the Coproduction Forum Mexico- USA- Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArraya will be granting a $30,000 Usd equivalent prize worth 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, as well as a paid stay in Tepoztlan Morelos, site of their studios, to the winner "Afronauts" by Francez Bodomo (U.S.).
The key phrase to understanding Cabo is "Seeing what the neighbors do" as the festival and market connects Canada, U,S, and Mexico in showing of films and exploring coproduction. And the mixing of filmmakers and journalists from all three Americas was exciting in the possibilities it offered to everyone.
As for the hard-core business done there:
Mark Kassen will be directing "Criminal Empire for Dummies" written by Cliff Dorman. Kassen will also be producing the film along with James Gibb of Cutting Edge Group and Greg Hajdarowicz of Gremi Films. The deal took place at the exclusive resort Hacienda Beach Club & Residences and was reported by Variety.
Actor and producer Luis Gerardo Mendez ("Nosotros Los Nobles") signed a representation agreement with Paradigm. Reported by Variety. So I guess Paradigm also sent agents to Los Cabos.
Pat Saperstein of Variety also attended Los Cabos and scooped a story, that “Wolverine Hotel” from director Patricia Chica who was participating in the Coproduction Forum, is closing in on production with a "recent financing commitment from Jean-Guy Després, who will serve as exec producer. The edgy crime thriller is produced by Canada-based Byron Martin. Looking to cast a Latino actor as co-star, Chica met with rising Mexican thesp Luis Gerardo Mendez ('We Are the Nobles') during Afm though he has not yet been attached. 'A Latino star opens up a market', said Martin."
Celebrated producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribución. She has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". "Instructions Not Included" the Us$ 5.5 million film that grossed Us$ 100 million worldwide was also her production. With this Pan-American initiative, the company will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets. Reported by Variety again!! You would think John was the only real reporter there. Pinske should be proud of him! Most of us got no scoops, but then, I guess we have to prove ourselves worthy - which I am not because at heart, I am not a reporter hunting for news, but rather a gatherer of information and a writer.
Speaking of Monica Lozano, the Germany-based international sales agent, Media Luna, acquired world rights to Internet Junkie, directed by Alexander Katzowicz and produced by Monica Lozano. Variety reports on this again!
"Yamaha 300", a participating project of the 1st Mexico – USA- Canada Coproduction Forum, produced by Valerium Arts (Mayra Espinosa y Jorge Michel Grau, producer and writer-director of the horror hit "Somos lo que hay" respectively, and Grau, the writer of the remake "We Are What We Are") and Uncorked Productions (Andrew Corkin, the producer of the horror film "What We Were"), will be one of the first projects to receive the development stage and postproduction support offered by The Good Film Fund, an initiative of Media Darling (Amy Darling) and The Chatanooga Film Festival. See Variety.
New York producer Dodgeville Films ("To Be Takei") will be joining Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce "Ya no estoy aquí", Fernando Frias’s second film, which was also a winner during Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition. This film in the Coproduction Forum was reported on in Variety.
"Siete Horas" ("Seven Hours"), one of the winning projects of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund edition, which will be directed by Chema Rodriguez and produced by Francisco Vargas, the renowned director of the film "El violin", made an alliance with the Spanish production companies Sin un Duro and Noodles Prods to co-produce the project. (Variety)
CineTren closed deals to handle Latin American distribution for Spring, a Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead film, whose Latin American Premiere was held at Los Cabos International Film Festival. Negotiations between Nate Bolotin and Marie Katz fromLos Angeles-based Xyz and Manuel Garcia from CineTren, took place at the Hotel Grand Solmar. Next time, I'll have to visit all the hotels!! See Variety article.
BH5 Group, which participates in the executive production of "Remember" by Atom Egoyan, will be working with Alonso Ruizpalacios, director of Güeros, in his second movie: Museo, a project that participated in the Ist Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum. Even though Variety wrote about this, my blog on the three year old conglomerate of companies, BH5, was more complete:
BH5 Group Makes a Splash with Three Impressive Films at Los Cabos Int'l Film Fest
BH5, a conglomerate of five formerly independent production companies all run by various friends from the same film school, will be working the international markets much more. Besides the Toronto hit, Jodorowsky's "Dance of Reality", they are working with larger companies like Pathe now. Their work in progress, "You Will Know What To Do With Me" ("Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz") which just won the The Usd $30,000 prize of Fox+, is seeking an international sales agent.
"Entrevero" by Max Zunino, also winner of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition, was selected in the development project category by Ibermedia. See Variety.
And though Colombian Ciro Guerra, whose "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production and by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival -- showed in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for U.S., announced to Variety's John Hopewell that his next film, "Embrace of the Serpent" will star U.S. actor Brionne Davis (“Savaged”) and Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet, the lead in Cannes Competition entry “Borgman” a really creepy dark comedy, he did not discuss his next project "Taganga" in the Coproduction Forum. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Finally, while it seems like Variety wrote all the news, I have one item which no one has reported on. Reese Witherspoon stated at her press conference in Los Cabos, where her film "Wild" premiered in a red carpet gala, that she is talking to Eugenio Derbez ("Instructions Not Included") to make a movie with him. I heard her say it and later spoke of this to Ben Odell (my next blog on Los Cabos features him). Ben (now partners with Eugenio at 3Pas Studios) said, Actually that would be a great idea but they had not spoken about it. However, they are both represented by CAA, so it would seem like a natural and really exciting pairing. After all, aren't "Legally Blond" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" the same film? She is certainly on a role as a producer with "Wild" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" as he is with his U.S. career. The studios are all courting her now, she said. More to come on this...
For all the infrastructure problems of the city in the midst of rebuilding itself, the festival seemed to thrive with all sorts of invitees showing up from all over the world. It seemed like gala events, panels, master classes, coproduction meetings, works in progress, screenings and interviews were constantly taking place. It was a great team and we all felt part of it.
The festival is overseen by the executive board members Eduardo Sánchez Navarro, Alfonso Pascal Barcenas, Scott Cross and Sean Cross (who also founded Vail Film Festival) and is organized by the festival team of Alonso Aguilar (General Director), Alejandra Paulin (General Coordinator) - who was a great market director in Guadajalara before coming here, Maru Garzon (Head of Programming), Ana Molinar Trujillo (Communication Manager), and Monica Herrera (Film Programmer). My friend from Guadalajara, normally an English teacher, Fabian Cruz was also there working for the festival.
When Eduardo Sánchez Navarro Redo remembers how he first came to Los Cabos, there is no doubt in his mind that destiny and luck played an important part. When he married his wife 30 years ago, he decided to travel along the entire Pacific Coast, from Acapulco to Mazatlan, where he crossed over to La Paz eventually driving to Los Cabos. The beauty of the area impressed him and it was during this trip that he and his wife decided to buy a vacation home in Los Cabos, thus beginning a distinguished career as a principal player and developer of what is Los Cabos today. Over the course of more than 20 years, his company, Grupo Questro, has emerged as one of the most highly respected developers in all of Mexico. He, together with Juan Gallardo Thurlow, Scott Cross, and Sean Cross, founded the festival in 2012.
My job as a journalist was to explore and write, hard to do when you are having such fun 24/7. We journalists were all in one hotel where we were given space and time to bond. Travel writers mixed with trade writers: from Film Journal David Noh, whose article is worth sharing here, my colleagues Peter Rainer from NPR and Christian Science Monitor, Anne Thompson from Thompson on Hollywood on Indiewire, Godfrey Cheshire of RogerEbert.com and many others met and mixed. Also Ira Deutchman of Colombia University Film School and Emerging Pictures and Robin Brock of Creative Coalition were there with time to share dinners.
The filmmakers, in another hotel, mixed by day and at the communal lunches and parties. I will write more on them in an upcoming blog! After all, filmmakers are the backbone of our industry. Without them, we have nothing!
The agents, mostly from CAA, were placed in another hotel, luxurious and far away. As someone said, Cabos is like Cannes, only in November. If so, perhaps they were at the Eden Roc in Cap d’Antibes. (Actually they were at Hacienda Beach Club & Residences) CAA has always been an honored part of this festival. I have heard that that is because someone with lots of money from Mexico invests it in cinema through CAA and even started the festival. That is, however, pure conjecture. Under the guidance of CAA agent, Micah Green, people can be assured that the directions he sees and the decisions he makes about investing private individuals' capital into filmed entertainment is priceless. I could think of no one I would trust more --in this untrustworthy business we are in-- than Micah.
At least two other agents – Bec Smith and Rena Ronson from UTA -- were also there. Rena and Micah were on the Film Financing Panel moderated by Variety’s expert in all things Iberoamerican and my idol, John Hopewell. Other participants on the Film Finance Panel were Jonathan King, Evp of Production at Jeff Skoll’s Participant Media whose partnership with Canana formed Participant PanAmerican production fund. “No” by Pablo Lorrain was their first investment. Pp also financed "El Ardor" which played in Cannes and “Cesar Chavez”, directed by Diego Luna. Also on the panel were Mark Musselman of Canada’s 10X2yinc, the exec producer of “Eastern Promises” and most recently of “Remember” by Atom Egoyan which was also produced by Robert Lantos and son, also in Los Cabos. It went into production in 2014 and is tipped for Cannes. Other panelists included Raul Del Alto of Mexico’s Ag Studios (Itaca Films Mexico, Itaca Films USA, Itaca Films Colombia and Itaca Filkms Brazil, and Rena Ronson of UTA who, like Micah Green of CAA focuses on global film finance, distribution and marketing strategies for Independents and co-financed features and is fluent in Spanish because of her long time experience with Latin America.
At one point I looked up and found the European fund chiefs there as well, Laufey Gudjonsdottir from Iceland (where Interstellar was filmed), Katriel Schory from Israel Film Fund and Edith Sepp-Dallas from the Estonian Film Institute. They were there for Bpx. Best Practice Exchange is an initiative that brings together the leaders of film funding agencies from across the world to take part in high-level-workshops – one or two each year – designed to promote new standards of excellence in the provision of public funding for the support of film production, development and distribution. The aim of Bpx is to ensure that policies and procedures adopted by film funding agencies will act together, positively and proactively, to stimulate and sustain practices of international coproduction and cofinancing worldwide.
Triggered by the situation in which filmmaking outside the main production centers of Hollywood and Bollywood now finds itself, Bpx was created by Simon Perry, president of Ace (Ateliers du Cinéma Européen), in collaboration with Katriel Schory, executive director of the Israel Film Fund. It held its first workshop in February 2013 in Israel, and two further workshops in Toronto (September 2013) and Berlin (February 2014) and this was the third! Bravo!
Among the Mexican, Canadian and U.S. films that showed, the winners were as follow:
Mexico First
Mexico First winning film was ¨Llevate mis amores” ("All of Me") by Arturo Gonzalez. The film narrates the story of the generosity of the women of Las Patronas who feed the immigrants who ride La Bestia. The director was awarded a cash Prize of Usd $15,000. This film made me cry. I thought of it again when reading the L.A. Times article about the murder of Adrian Rodriguez and his assistant, Mexican good Samaritans who dedicated their scarce resources to feeding Central American migrants passing by on La Bestia, which is what the women in this movie do. And one of the women was at the festival too.
Los Cabos Competition
The Los Cabos Competition winner was “Güeros” by Alonso Ruizpalacios, also a winner at the Berlinale, Jerusalem Film Festival, Tribeca, Toronto and San Sebastian. Being sold internationally by Mundial, the joint venture of Canana (again!) and Im Global, the film has sold to Kino Lorber for U.S., Cannibal for Mexico, Dreams Hill for Italy, Noori for So. Korea and Maison Motion for Taiwan … "Güeros" is the undeniable triumph of a nouveau director who dares to pay homage the French New Wave on a wild detective hunt through Mexico City. In light of the 43 murdered students, this film, about students on strike, strikes a chord within the watcher. The film´s producer won a Usd $15,000 cash prize.
Work In Progress Mexico
The second Work in Progress Mexico prize was awarded to "Los Herederos," by Jorge Hernandez, a film that describes adolescent effervescence and idleness through a group of friends who spend their vacations adrenaline-seeking through parties, sex and alcohol. The winner received a Usd $10,000 cash prize.
Mexico-usa-canada Co-production Forum
The winner of the first Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum was also announced: "Afronauts" by Frances Bodomo, based on the real life story of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias, Investigación Espacial e Investigación Astronómica of Zambia. Writer- Director Frances Bodomo received a Usd $8,000 cash prize. It also received funding from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
Mexico First: Fox +
In its second year running the México Primero: Fox+ chose one of the films that participated to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The México Primero: Fox+ prize consists of Usd $40,000 and was awarded to Isaac Ezban´s "El Incidente" ("The Incident"), two M.C. Escher-maze-like parallel stories about characters trapped in illogical endless spaces: two brothers and a detective locked on an infinite staircase, and a family locked on an infinite road… for a very long time. The international sales agent, Shoreline, will be showing the film at Ventana Sur December 3rd at 17:00 at Cinemark 3.
Work In Progress Mexico Fox +
In its second year running as well, Work in Progress México Fox+ selected a participating film to have its distribution rights pre-bought for the Latin American and Caribbean (Except Brazil) markets. The Usd $30,000 prize was awarded to Katina Medina Mora’s "Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz", produced by Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann.
Work In Progress Mexico Chemistry
This Third edition of the Festival also witnessed the first Work In Progress México –Chemistry award. Chemistry post-production studios granted the winner, Jorge Hernandez’s "Los Herederos", $45,000 Usd in color correction services.
Mexico – USA – Canada Splendor Omnia Mantarraya Co-production Forum
On its first year running, the Coproduction Forum Mexico- USA- Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArraya will be granting a $30,000 Usd equivalent prize worth 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, as well as a paid stay in Tepoztlan Morelos, site of their studios, to the winner "Afronauts" by Francez Bodomo (U.S.).
The key phrase to understanding Cabo is "Seeing what the neighbors do" as the festival and market connects Canada, U,S, and Mexico in showing of films and exploring coproduction. And the mixing of filmmakers and journalists from all three Americas was exciting in the possibilities it offered to everyone.
As for the hard-core business done there:
Mark Kassen will be directing "Criminal Empire for Dummies" written by Cliff Dorman. Kassen will also be producing the film along with James Gibb of Cutting Edge Group and Greg Hajdarowicz of Gremi Films. The deal took place at the exclusive resort Hacienda Beach Club & Residences and was reported by Variety.
Actor and producer Luis Gerardo Mendez ("Nosotros Los Nobles") signed a representation agreement with Paradigm. Reported by Variety. So I guess Paradigm also sent agents to Los Cabos.
Pat Saperstein of Variety also attended Los Cabos and scooped a story, that “Wolverine Hotel” from director Patricia Chica who was participating in the Coproduction Forum, is closing in on production with a "recent financing commitment from Jean-Guy Després, who will serve as exec producer. The edgy crime thriller is produced by Canada-based Byron Martin. Looking to cast a Latino actor as co-star, Chica met with rising Mexican thesp Luis Gerardo Mendez ('We Are the Nobles') during Afm though he has not yet been attached. 'A Latino star opens up a market', said Martin."
Celebrated producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribución. She has had her hand in 23 productions since her first film, "Amores Perros". "Instructions Not Included" the Us$ 5.5 million film that grossed Us$ 100 million worldwide was also her production. With this Pan-American initiative, the company will acquire distribution rights for the Latin and North American markets. Reported by Variety again!! You would think John was the only real reporter there. Pinske should be proud of him! Most of us got no scoops, but then, I guess we have to prove ourselves worthy - which I am not because at heart, I am not a reporter hunting for news, but rather a gatherer of information and a writer.
Speaking of Monica Lozano, the Germany-based international sales agent, Media Luna, acquired world rights to Internet Junkie, directed by Alexander Katzowicz and produced by Monica Lozano. Variety reports on this again!
"Yamaha 300", a participating project of the 1st Mexico – USA- Canada Coproduction Forum, produced by Valerium Arts (Mayra Espinosa y Jorge Michel Grau, producer and writer-director of the horror hit "Somos lo que hay" respectively, and Grau, the writer of the remake "We Are What We Are") and Uncorked Productions (Andrew Corkin, the producer of the horror film "What We Were"), will be one of the first projects to receive the development stage and postproduction support offered by The Good Film Fund, an initiative of Media Darling (Amy Darling) and The Chatanooga Film Festival. See Variety.
New York producer Dodgeville Films ("To Be Takei") will be joining Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce "Ya no estoy aquí", Fernando Frias’s second film, which was also a winner during Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition. This film in the Coproduction Forum was reported on in Variety.
"Siete Horas" ("Seven Hours"), one of the winning projects of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund edition, which will be directed by Chema Rodriguez and produced by Francisco Vargas, the renowned director of the film "El violin", made an alliance with the Spanish production companies Sin un Duro and Noodles Prods to co-produce the project. (Variety)
CineTren closed deals to handle Latin American distribution for Spring, a Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead film, whose Latin American Premiere was held at Los Cabos International Film Festival. Negotiations between Nate Bolotin and Marie Katz fromLos Angeles-based Xyz and Manuel Garcia from CineTren, took place at the Hotel Grand Solmar. Next time, I'll have to visit all the hotels!! See Variety article.
BH5 Group, which participates in the executive production of "Remember" by Atom Egoyan, will be working with Alonso Ruizpalacios, director of Güeros, in his second movie: Museo, a project that participated in the Ist Mexico- USA- Canada Co-production Forum. Even though Variety wrote about this, my blog on the three year old conglomerate of companies, BH5, was more complete:
BH5 Group Makes a Splash with Three Impressive Films at Los Cabos Int'l Film Fest
BH5, a conglomerate of five formerly independent production companies all run by various friends from the same film school, will be working the international markets much more. Besides the Toronto hit, Jodorowsky's "Dance of Reality", they are working with larger companies like Pathe now. Their work in progress, "You Will Know What To Do With Me" ("Sabras que hacer conmigo" aka "En Contraluz") which just won the The Usd $30,000 prize of Fox+, is seeking an international sales agent.
"Entrevero" by Max Zunino, also winner of the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund second edition, was selected in the development project category by Ibermedia. See Variety.
And though Colombian Ciro Guerra, whose "The Wind Journeys" was produced by our German friends Roman Paul and Gerhard Meixner at Razor Film Production and by Burning Blue's prolific Diana Bustamente -- who is now also heading the Carthagena Film Festival -- showed in 2009 Cannes Un Certain Regard and was sold by Paris’ Elle Driver to 19 countries including Film Movement for U.S., announced to Variety's John Hopewell that his next film, "Embrace of the Serpent" will star U.S. actor Brionne Davis (“Savaged”) and Belgium’s Jan Bijvoet, the lead in Cannes Competition entry “Borgman” a really creepy dark comedy, he did not discuss his next project "Taganga" in the Coproduction Forum. "Taganga" is about a fisherman from a small village by the Colombian coast where many foreign-owned scuba diving centers have been established. A new law requiring local fisherman to change the motors of their boats forces him to earn quick money, so he chooses to dynamite to fish. The owner of the largest scuba diving center opposes this use of explosives. When the fisherman receives a death threat if he continues the dynamiting of fish, he assumes the center's owner is behind the threat. In order to prove it, he begins a series of fateful actions.
Finally, while it seems like Variety wrote all the news, I have one item which no one has reported on. Reese Witherspoon stated at her press conference in Los Cabos, where her film "Wild" premiered in a red carpet gala, that she is talking to Eugenio Derbez ("Instructions Not Included") to make a movie with him. I heard her say it and later spoke of this to Ben Odell (my next blog on Los Cabos features him). Ben (now partners with Eugenio at 3Pas Studios) said, Actually that would be a great idea but they had not spoken about it. However, they are both represented by CAA, so it would seem like a natural and really exciting pairing. After all, aren't "Legally Blond" and "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" the same film? She is certainly on a role as a producer with "Wild" and David Fincher's "Gone Girl" as he is with his U.S. career. The studios are all courting her now, she said. More to come on this...
- 12/1/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Alonso Ruizpalacios’ acclaimed film prevailed as the Los Cabos International Film Festival came to a close at the weekend.
The awards were part of a flurry of events at the Mexican festival, which ran from November 12-16 and closed with the Mexican premiere of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood attended by stars Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater.
In other developments producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribucion, Media Luna took world rights to Alexander Katzowicz’s Internet Junkie and BH5 Group boarded Ruizpalacios’ Museo that participated in the first Mexico-usa-Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArrava Co-Production Forum.
New York producer Dodgeville Films will join Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce Fernando Frias’ second film I’m No Longer Here (Ya No Estoy Aquí), one of the recipients of a $5,000 Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund grant. Spain’s Sin Un Duro and Noodles Prods have come on to co-produce another Gabriel Figueroa grant-winner, Chema Rodríguez’s Seven...
The awards were part of a flurry of events at the Mexican festival, which ran from November 12-16 and closed with the Mexican premiere of Richard Linklater’s Boyhood attended by stars Ellar Coltrane and Lorelei Linklater.
In other developments producer Monica Lozano announced the launch of Alebrije Distribucion, Media Luna took world rights to Alexander Katzowicz’s Internet Junkie and BH5 Group boarded Ruizpalacios’ Museo that participated in the first Mexico-usa-Canada Splendor Omnia – MANTArrava Co-Production Forum.
New York producer Dodgeville Films will join Varios Lobos in Mexico to produce Fernando Frias’ second film I’m No Longer Here (Ya No Estoy Aquí), one of the recipients of a $5,000 Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund grant. Spain’s Sin Un Duro and Noodles Prods have come on to co-produce another Gabriel Figueroa grant-winner, Chema Rodríguez’s Seven...
- 11/16/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Every year in November in Los Cabos, one of the most beautiful places in Mexico, 14,000 attendees, 450 industry professionals, and national and international media join together to celebrate film.
This year the Hurricane Odile took out Los Cabos and we feared for the festival. However, it has survived and its third edition, renamed from “Baja International Film Festival, Los Cabos” to “ Los Cabos International Film Festival ” has added three new sections.
You will find me there for this third edition November 12 – 16, where the Mexican film industry, its cultural and commercial partners in North America meet with invited guests to watch and discuss the best in cinema today.
Read more about its 2014 Official Selection program here. Nine films are in Competition from Mexico, U.S. and Canada, competing for Usd $15,000 cash, six Mexican productions – the first or second film by directors will compete for Usd $15,000 in the Mexico First Section.
The Festival’s three new sections to be presented in its Third Edition are Green Perspective, B-Side and Sunset.
Green Perspective is a section that present stories that generate awareness and force us to reflect on our responsibilities with the environment and the urgent need to create a harmonious coexistence among all the links part of this planet. The films in this new section are:
• “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” by Grant Baldwin. (Canada– Latin American Premiere).
• “México Pelágico” (“Deep-Sea Mexico”) by Jerónimo Prieto (Mexico, 2014).
• “ThuleTuvalu” by Matthias von Gunten (Switzerland- Latin American Premiere).
The theater chain, Cinemex will present this as part of the Festival’s Free Outdoor Screenings Program to be held at Plaza Mijares in San José del Cabo.
The Festival also launches, B Side, showcasing the best films portraying music, providing both sonorous and visual enjoyment. The three films presented this year are:
• “20,000 Days on Earth” by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (U.K. – Mexican Premiere). After its Sundance 2014 premiere, Hanway picked it up for international sales and has sold it to Drafthouse Films for U.S. as well as to Benelux (Remain In Light Belgium), Brazil (Zeta Filmes), Denmark (Camera Film A/S), Norway (Tour De Force As), Poland (Gutek Film Ltd), Spain (Avalon Distribucion Audiovisual), Sweden (Nonstop Entertainment Ab), U.K. ( Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd/ Picturehouse Entertainment).
• “For Those About To Rock: The Story of Rodrigo y Gabriela” by Alejandro Franco Fernández (Mexico– Latin American Premiere).
• “God Help the Girl” by Stuart Murdoch (U.K.– Mexican Premiere).
This film also premiered at Sundance and is also repped by Hanway and has sold to Amplify (Los Angeles) for the U.S. and to So. Korea (Challan), Spain (Avalon Distribucion Audiovisual), Taiwan ( Atom Cinema).
The third new section, Sunset, intends to provoke with genres of horror, science fiction and black comedy.
“Over Your Dead Body” by Takashi Miike (Japan – Latin American Premiere) premiered at Pusan Film Festival and is being sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams and Mongrel Media. “Spring” by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (U.S.A. – Mexican Premiere) presented in collaboration with Morbido Fest. Xyz both produced and is the international sales agent for this film which will debut at this year’s American Filkm Market. “What We Do in the Shadows” by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement (New Zealand, U.S. – Latin American Premiere) also premiered in Sundance and played in Midnight Madness at Tiff. Elle Driver picked it up at its Sundance premiere and has licensed the film to Unison Films for U.S., Australia (Madman Entertainment), Germany (Weltkino Filmverleih Gmbh), Japan (Shochiku Co., Ltd), Russia (Volgafilm), Sweden (Njutafilms), U.K. ( Metrodome Distribution). Within the framework of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, that supports Mexican filmmakers’ projects in development and in post, the Festival is honoring Gabriel Figueroa, one of the greatest filmmakers of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In collaboration with photographer Gabriel Figueroa Flores, keeper and film restorer of his father's legacy, the photo exhibition "Homage to Gabriel Figueroa" will be presented, highlighting the work of the cinematographer in several foreign productions filmed in Mexico, including "The Pearl" (1945), "The Fugitive" (1947) and "The Night of the Iguana" (1962).
Los Cabos Film Festival is proud to have as guests, prominent Mexican celebrities who will get together at the red carpets and the Festival events, including Guillermo Arriaga, Ilse Salas, Tenoch Huerta, Sofía Espinosa, Sophie Alexander Katz, Marimar Vega, Luis Ernesto Franco, Erick Elias, Eiza González, Dolores Heredia, Maya Zapata, Chema Yazpik, Patricia Garza, Irene Azuela, Natalia Lafourcade, Tessa Ia, among others.
Among international celebrities confirmed to date are Atom Egoyan (Canada), Denys Arcand (Quebec), Xavier Dolan (Quebec), Frank Grillo (USA), DJ Cotrona (USA), Leonor Varela (Chile), Natalia Tena (UK), Eric Bruneau (Quebec), Sarai Givaty (Israel) and Rich
The Festival will give away 7,000 tickets for Cinemex screenings and 500 tickets for the Opening Gala, 500 tickets for Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy”’s Gala and 500 tickets for “Words with God”’s Gala, and 800 tickets for the Closing Gala.
As part of its commitment to Los Cabos, the Festival will donate to the Municipal Dif (National System for Integral Family Development) 8% of total sales. To promote social support and the provision of services that contribute to the protection, care and improvement of vulnerable groups.
American actress Rosario Dawson will present the Latin American Premier of Atom Egoyan’s “ The Captive” (2014), and will have the honor to grant the Tribute Award to Mr. Egoyan. Dawson plays a detective in the film by the Canadian Director, investigating Cassandra’s case that was abruptly kidnapped; this begins a horrifying race against time where the detective herself must play her part in unraveling the mystery of her disappearance and freeing her from captivity.
Its press conference in Mexico City on October 31st, more details will be announced.
Come And See What The Neighbors Are Doing Mexico, USA and Canada showcase their best films to the world.
This year the Hurricane Odile took out Los Cabos and we feared for the festival. However, it has survived and its third edition, renamed from “Baja International Film Festival, Los Cabos” to “ Los Cabos International Film Festival ” has added three new sections.
You will find me there for this third edition November 12 – 16, where the Mexican film industry, its cultural and commercial partners in North America meet with invited guests to watch and discuss the best in cinema today.
Read more about its 2014 Official Selection program here. Nine films are in Competition from Mexico, U.S. and Canada, competing for Usd $15,000 cash, six Mexican productions – the first or second film by directors will compete for Usd $15,000 in the Mexico First Section.
The Festival’s three new sections to be presented in its Third Edition are Green Perspective, B-Side and Sunset.
Green Perspective is a section that present stories that generate awareness and force us to reflect on our responsibilities with the environment and the urgent need to create a harmonious coexistence among all the links part of this planet. The films in this new section are:
• “Just Eat It: A Food Waste Story” by Grant Baldwin. (Canada– Latin American Premiere).
• “México Pelágico” (“Deep-Sea Mexico”) by Jerónimo Prieto (Mexico, 2014).
• “ThuleTuvalu” by Matthias von Gunten (Switzerland- Latin American Premiere).
The theater chain, Cinemex will present this as part of the Festival’s Free Outdoor Screenings Program to be held at Plaza Mijares in San José del Cabo.
The Festival also launches, B Side, showcasing the best films portraying music, providing both sonorous and visual enjoyment. The three films presented this year are:
• “20,000 Days on Earth” by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard (U.K. – Mexican Premiere). After its Sundance 2014 premiere, Hanway picked it up for international sales and has sold it to Drafthouse Films for U.S. as well as to Benelux (Remain In Light Belgium), Brazil (Zeta Filmes), Denmark (Camera Film A/S), Norway (Tour De Force As), Poland (Gutek Film Ltd), Spain (Avalon Distribucion Audiovisual), Sweden (Nonstop Entertainment Ab), U.K. ( Picturehouse Cinemas Ltd/ Picturehouse Entertainment).
• “For Those About To Rock: The Story of Rodrigo y Gabriela” by Alejandro Franco Fernández (Mexico– Latin American Premiere).
• “God Help the Girl” by Stuart Murdoch (U.K.– Mexican Premiere).
This film also premiered at Sundance and is also repped by Hanway and has sold to Amplify (Los Angeles) for the U.S. and to So. Korea (Challan), Spain (Avalon Distribucion Audiovisual), Taiwan ( Atom Cinema).
The third new section, Sunset, intends to provoke with genres of horror, science fiction and black comedy.
“Over Your Dead Body” by Takashi Miike (Japan – Latin American Premiere) premiered at Pusan Film Festival and is being sold internationally by Celluloid Dreams and Mongrel Media. “Spring” by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (U.S.A. – Mexican Premiere) presented in collaboration with Morbido Fest. Xyz both produced and is the international sales agent for this film which will debut at this year’s American Filkm Market. “What We Do in the Shadows” by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement (New Zealand, U.S. – Latin American Premiere) also premiered in Sundance and played in Midnight Madness at Tiff. Elle Driver picked it up at its Sundance premiere and has licensed the film to Unison Films for U.S., Australia (Madman Entertainment), Germany (Weltkino Filmverleih Gmbh), Japan (Shochiku Co., Ltd), Russia (Volgafilm), Sweden (Njutafilms), U.K. ( Metrodome Distribution). Within the framework of the second Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, that supports Mexican filmmakers’ projects in development and in post, the Festival is honoring Gabriel Figueroa, one of the greatest filmmakers of the Golden Age of Mexican cinema. In collaboration with photographer Gabriel Figueroa Flores, keeper and film restorer of his father's legacy, the photo exhibition "Homage to Gabriel Figueroa" will be presented, highlighting the work of the cinematographer in several foreign productions filmed in Mexico, including "The Pearl" (1945), "The Fugitive" (1947) and "The Night of the Iguana" (1962).
Los Cabos Film Festival is proud to have as guests, prominent Mexican celebrities who will get together at the red carpets and the Festival events, including Guillermo Arriaga, Ilse Salas, Tenoch Huerta, Sofía Espinosa, Sophie Alexander Katz, Marimar Vega, Luis Ernesto Franco, Erick Elias, Eiza González, Dolores Heredia, Maya Zapata, Chema Yazpik, Patricia Garza, Irene Azuela, Natalia Lafourcade, Tessa Ia, among others.
Among international celebrities confirmed to date are Atom Egoyan (Canada), Denys Arcand (Quebec), Xavier Dolan (Quebec), Frank Grillo (USA), DJ Cotrona (USA), Leonor Varela (Chile), Natalia Tena (UK), Eric Bruneau (Quebec), Sarai Givaty (Israel) and Rich
The Festival will give away 7,000 tickets for Cinemex screenings and 500 tickets for the Opening Gala, 500 tickets for Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy”’s Gala and 500 tickets for “Words with God”’s Gala, and 800 tickets for the Closing Gala.
As part of its commitment to Los Cabos, the Festival will donate to the Municipal Dif (National System for Integral Family Development) 8% of total sales. To promote social support and the provision of services that contribute to the protection, care and improvement of vulnerable groups.
American actress Rosario Dawson will present the Latin American Premier of Atom Egoyan’s “ The Captive” (2014), and will have the honor to grant the Tribute Award to Mr. Egoyan. Dawson plays a detective in the film by the Canadian Director, investigating Cassandra’s case that was abruptly kidnapped; this begins a horrifying race against time where the detective herself must play her part in unraveling the mystery of her disappearance and freeing her from captivity.
Its press conference in Mexico City on October 31st, more details will be announced.
Come And See What The Neighbors Are Doing Mexico, USA and Canada showcase their best films to the world.
- 10/31/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Los Cabos International Film Festival will offer, within its industry activities, a total of Usd $227,000 to support projects from Mexico, the U.S.A. and Canada.
In its Third Edition, in an effort to contribute the development and consolidation of the North American film industry, presents as part of its industry activities, the first Mexico-usa-Canada Co-production Forum .
Los Cabos Film Festival , announces the 13 participant projects in the Forum:
Afronauts by Frances Bodomo (USA). Coward by Boris Rodriguez, an Anne Marie Gélinas production (Canada). The Other Tom by Rodrigo Plá, a Sandino Saravia production (Mexico). First Match by Olivia Newman, a Veronica Nickel and Chanelle Elaine production (USA). Away from Meaning by Olivia Luengas Magaña, a Vanessa Romo Gutiérrez production (Mexico). Butterfly by Maria Saakya, a Jeff Kalousdian production (USA). Museum by Alonso Ruizpalacios, a Manuel Alcalá and Alberto Muffelman production (Mexico). Permanent by Colette Burson, a Haroula Rose and Joshua Blum production (USA). Taganga by Ciro Guerra, a Katrin Pors and Serge Noel production (Canada- Colombia). Wolverine Hotel by Patricia Chica, a Byron A. Martin production (Canada). X Quinientos by Juan Andrés Arango, a Edher Campos and Yanick Letourneau production (Canada- Mexico- Colombia). I’m No Longer Here by Fernando Frías, a Gerry Kim and Mayuran Tiruchelvam production (Mexico- USA). Yamaha 300 by Jorge Michel Grau, a Mayra Espinosa Castro production (Mexico - USA). Representatives from each project will have access to a series of one-to-one meetings with key members of the international film industry and potential co-producers.
The Co-production Forum Jury, composed of Fabien Westerhoff , Sales and Distribution Director at WestEnd Films (UK), Nick Ogiony , Sales Agent at Creative Artists Agency (USA) and Lyse Lafontaine , renowned Canadian producer, will announce the winning project at the Festival, which will receive a cash prize of Usd $8,000.
Also, the recognized studios Splendor - Omnia Mantarraya will award a prize valued at Usd$30,000 to one of the participating projects, consisting of a 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, accommodation and food for two people in Tepoztlán, Mexico.
Supporting the completion of Mexican feature or documentary films in post-production stage, Los Cabos Film Festival has announced the six films participating in the second Work In Progress Mexico :
El charro de Toluquilla by José Villalobos Romero, a Sergio Adrián Morkin and José Villalobos Romero production. Charity by Marcelino Islas Hernández, a Santiago García Galván production. Heirs by Jorge Hernández Aldana, a Michel Franco production. Light Feet by Juan Carlos Núñez, a Henry Lesperance Álvarez production. You Will Know what to Do with Me by Katina Medina Mora, a Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann production. Holy Days by Alejandra Márquez Abella, a Nicolás Celis and Sebastián Celis production.
Jaie Laplante, Director of the Miami International Film Festival (USA), Nicole Mackey, Vice President of sales agency Fortissimo Films (UK), and Nate Bolotin, Xyz Films cofounder (USA), as members of the Work In Progress Mexico Jury, will evaluate six films that compete for a cash prize of Usd$10,000 .
The TV station Fox+ will also award a prize of Usd $30,000 to one of the participating films (the equivalent to the anticipated purchase of broadcast rights for Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding Brazil through the channel’s windows). And the outstanding post-production company Chemistry will award a prize worth Usd $45,000 consisting of 80 hours of color correction, 40 hours of conform and digital mastering, and packaging in Dcp.
In addition, the two winning films of the Post-production Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund , each received from Labodigital’s Usd $52,000 in post-production services. These two films will also be part of the Work In Progress Mexico selection.
In its Third Edition, in an effort to contribute the development and consolidation of the North American film industry, presents as part of its industry activities, the first Mexico-usa-Canada Co-production Forum .
Los Cabos Film Festival , announces the 13 participant projects in the Forum:
Afronauts by Frances Bodomo (USA). Coward by Boris Rodriguez, an Anne Marie Gélinas production (Canada). The Other Tom by Rodrigo Plá, a Sandino Saravia production (Mexico). First Match by Olivia Newman, a Veronica Nickel and Chanelle Elaine production (USA). Away from Meaning by Olivia Luengas Magaña, a Vanessa Romo Gutiérrez production (Mexico). Butterfly by Maria Saakya, a Jeff Kalousdian production (USA). Museum by Alonso Ruizpalacios, a Manuel Alcalá and Alberto Muffelman production (Mexico). Permanent by Colette Burson, a Haroula Rose and Joshua Blum production (USA). Taganga by Ciro Guerra, a Katrin Pors and Serge Noel production (Canada- Colombia). Wolverine Hotel by Patricia Chica, a Byron A. Martin production (Canada). X Quinientos by Juan Andrés Arango, a Edher Campos and Yanick Letourneau production (Canada- Mexico- Colombia). I’m No Longer Here by Fernando Frías, a Gerry Kim and Mayuran Tiruchelvam production (Mexico- USA). Yamaha 300 by Jorge Michel Grau, a Mayra Espinosa Castro production (Mexico - USA). Representatives from each project will have access to a series of one-to-one meetings with key members of the international film industry and potential co-producers.
The Co-production Forum Jury, composed of Fabien Westerhoff , Sales and Distribution Director at WestEnd Films (UK), Nick Ogiony , Sales Agent at Creative Artists Agency (USA) and Lyse Lafontaine , renowned Canadian producer, will announce the winning project at the Festival, which will receive a cash prize of Usd $8,000.
Also, the recognized studios Splendor - Omnia Mantarraya will award a prize valued at Usd$30,000 to one of the participating projects, consisting of a 40 hours of color correction, 40 hours of sound mixing, accommodation and food for two people in Tepoztlán, Mexico.
Supporting the completion of Mexican feature or documentary films in post-production stage, Los Cabos Film Festival has announced the six films participating in the second Work In Progress Mexico :
El charro de Toluquilla by José Villalobos Romero, a Sergio Adrián Morkin and José Villalobos Romero production. Charity by Marcelino Islas Hernández, a Santiago García Galván production. Heirs by Jorge Hernández Aldana, a Michel Franco production. Light Feet by Juan Carlos Núñez, a Henry Lesperance Álvarez production. You Will Know what to Do with Me by Katina Medina Mora, a Gerardo Gatica and Alberto Muffelmann production. Holy Days by Alejandra Márquez Abella, a Nicolás Celis and Sebastián Celis production.
Jaie Laplante, Director of the Miami International Film Festival (USA), Nicole Mackey, Vice President of sales agency Fortissimo Films (UK), and Nate Bolotin, Xyz Films cofounder (USA), as members of the Work In Progress Mexico Jury, will evaluate six films that compete for a cash prize of Usd$10,000 .
The TV station Fox+ will also award a prize of Usd $30,000 to one of the participating films (the equivalent to the anticipated purchase of broadcast rights for Latin America and the Caribbean, excluding Brazil through the channel’s windows). And the outstanding post-production company Chemistry will award a prize worth Usd $45,000 consisting of 80 hours of color correction, 40 hours of conform and digital mastering, and packaging in Dcp.
In addition, the two winning films of the Post-production Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund , each received from Labodigital’s Usd $52,000 in post-production services. These two films will also be part of the Work In Progress Mexico selection.
- 10/23/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
As part of its commitment to support the national film production, the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund offers on its second year in a row a grand total of Usd $138,240 to Mexican projects.
7 grants of Usd $5,000 to each Mexican project in development stage. 2 grants of Usd $51,620 to each Mexican project in post-production stage granted by Labodigital S.A. de C.V. in post-production services. Call for entries closes on July 31st
Some Gfff 2013 participants' project achievements:
Inzomnia of Luis Téllez, was selected by Los Cabos International Film Festival to participate at the Moscow Business Square 2014. "La Raya" by Yolanda Cruz, received the Heineken Voces award from Tribeca Film Institute. "Edén" by Elise DuRant premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and participated in the Göteborg International Film Festival. Projects that finished shooting and are about to finish their post-production stage: "Epitafio" by Yulene Olaizola and Rubén Imaz. "Semana Santa" by Director Alejandra Marquez.
7 grants of Usd $5,000 to each Mexican project in development stage. 2 grants of Usd $51,620 to each Mexican project in post-production stage granted by Labodigital S.A. de C.V. in post-production services. Call for entries closes on July 31st
Some Gfff 2013 participants' project achievements:
Inzomnia of Luis Téllez, was selected by Los Cabos International Film Festival to participate at the Moscow Business Square 2014. "La Raya" by Yolanda Cruz, received the Heineken Voces award from Tribeca Film Institute. "Edén" by Elise DuRant premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival and participated in the Göteborg International Film Festival. Projects that finished shooting and are about to finish their post-production stage: "Epitafio" by Yulene Olaizola and Rubén Imaz. "Semana Santa" by Director Alejandra Marquez.
- 7/23/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Great news for Canadian producers selected to attend Strategic Partners – Los Cabos Film Festival will be unveiling their first Co-production Forum (November 11 – 16, 2014) and a feature film project from this year's Strategic Partners will be invited to participate. In return, a Mexican project in development (awarded by the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund) will be invited to participate at Strategic Partners this September 11 – 14, 2014.
As Strategic Partners will be shining the Spotlight on Ibero-America (as well as the USA) in both 2014 and 2015, the initiative hopes to include a strong delegation of Canadian producers who are interested in co-producing with Ibero-America and finding partners from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and beyond. All Canadian film projects accepted at Sp’14 will be eligible for acceptance to the Los Cabos Co-production Forum.
Strategic Partners 2014 is now open for producer applications and industry registrations
As the deadline to apply is fast approaching (June 27th), find the link to apply/register below
To apply to Strategic Partners:
Here.
Strategic Partners is one of the world’s top international co-production/co-financing markets. Focusing on feature film, TV and web-based fiction, Sp includes projects looking for financing as well as those still at an early stage, looking for the right partner. Its linear program is designed to provide unparalleled access to international co-production possibilities – all under one roof, set against the backdrop of the Atlantic Film Festival and the vibrant, coastal city of Halifax, Nova Scotia .
This year's Sp will take place September 11th -14th, conveniently scheduled at the end of Tiff, for those attending both events.
As Strategic Partners will be shining the Spotlight on Ibero-America (as well as the USA) in both 2014 and 2015, the initiative hopes to include a strong delegation of Canadian producers who are interested in co-producing with Ibero-America and finding partners from Spain, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and beyond. All Canadian film projects accepted at Sp’14 will be eligible for acceptance to the Los Cabos Co-production Forum.
Strategic Partners 2014 is now open for producer applications and industry registrations
As the deadline to apply is fast approaching (June 27th), find the link to apply/register below
To apply to Strategic Partners:
Here.
Strategic Partners is one of the world’s top international co-production/co-financing markets. Focusing on feature film, TV and web-based fiction, Sp includes projects looking for financing as well as those still at an early stage, looking for the right partner. Its linear program is designed to provide unparalleled access to international co-production possibilities – all under one roof, set against the backdrop of the Atlantic Film Festival and the vibrant, coastal city of Halifax, Nova Scotia .
This year's Sp will take place September 11th -14th, conveniently scheduled at the end of Tiff, for those attending both events.
- 6/17/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
As part of the 3rd edition of Los Cabos Film Festival, the first co-production forum Mexico-usa-Canada will take place, 12 projects (4 for each Country) will be selected to participate. Los Cabos Film Fest will select a project from the filmmaker/industry meetings that Tribeca Film Institute holds for its grantees each year during the Tribeca Film Institute and a Canadian project of Halifax Atlantic Festival.
The project of Tfi must fulfill the next conditions: be a U.S. production, a fiction film and be in development stage.
A Russian project in development will have access to the Forum, it needs to have a co-production with North America as part of Moscow Fest Moscow Business Square.
Three Mexican projects in development awarded in Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, will be invited to participate at Tribeca, Moscow and Halifax, one for each event.
The announcement of the project selected will be made during Los Cabos Film Fest dates, Nov. 11-16, 2014.
Inzomnia from Mexican animation pioneer Luis Téllez, will be traveling to Moscow Business Square, which participated in Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund 2013 open call. A stop-motion animated feature, that mixes a future world and a mythological past.
With these three-part partnerships Los Cabos Film Festival approaches in its goal of reducing distances between producers and filmmakers from Mexico, U.S. and Canada, between each other and with the rest of the world.
Jorge Michel Grau, Emma Films, Filmoption and Alonso Aguilar-Castillo, Los Cabos Film Fest Director.
Industry Deals Announcements
Jorge Michel Grau and Mayra Espinosa Castro form Velarium Arts and Andrew Corkin from Uncorked Productions, will produce Grau’s next film Yamaha 300, pact developed in Los Cabos Film Fest.
In addition, Velarium Arts, EMAfilms and Filmoption International are teaming up to co-produce Multiplier by Rodrigo Hernández, Mayra Espinosa Castro & Jorge Michel Grau (Velarium Arts), Anne-Marie Gélinas and Benoit Beaulieu (EMAfilms) and Andrew Noble (Filmoption International) signed the deal in Cannes for Hernandez’s sci-fi.
The film is currently in development with an aim for principal photography to start in Mexico in 2015. Post-production, including the visual effects, will take place in Montreal.
At Los Cabos International Film Festival, Velarium Arts did the first pitching to Anne Marie and Andrew Noble for “Multiplier”.
"Los Cabos Film Fest is the place were we first did a pitch to Anne Marie and Andrew Noble about Multiplier at the meeting point were all the industry gets together, so this is how everything started so good. Also, by the beach, Andrew Corkin listened our Yamaha 300 project and he loved it, our plan is to keep things moving and keep closing deals in order to shoot these two projects in 2015" mentioned Mayra Castro (Velarium Arts) to Los Cabos Film Fest.
Also, Machete Films is co-producing X Quinientos from Juan Andres Arango (La Playa DC), that is also produced by Montreal-based Peripheria Productions and Septima Films in Colombia.Peripheria’s Yanick Letourneau and Machete’s Edher Campos first met at Los Cabos where they start talking about the project.
"Yamaha 300"
For more information: www.cabosfilmfestival.com
Come And See What The Neighbors Are Doing
Mexico, Canada and USA showcase their best films to the world.
About Tribeca Film Institute ® ( http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org )
Tribeca Film Institute champions storytellers to be catalysts for change in their communities and around the world. Through grants and professional development programs, Tfi supports a diverse, exceptional group of filmmakers and media artists, providing them resources needed to fully realize their stories and connect with audiences. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Featuring hands-on training and exposure to socially relevant films, the Institute administers programs to more than 25,000 students annually. Tfi was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001 and is a 501(c)(3) year-round nonprofit arts organization.
The project of Tfi must fulfill the next conditions: be a U.S. production, a fiction film and be in development stage.
A Russian project in development will have access to the Forum, it needs to have a co-production with North America as part of Moscow Fest Moscow Business Square.
Three Mexican projects in development awarded in Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund, will be invited to participate at Tribeca, Moscow and Halifax, one for each event.
The announcement of the project selected will be made during Los Cabos Film Fest dates, Nov. 11-16, 2014.
Inzomnia from Mexican animation pioneer Luis Téllez, will be traveling to Moscow Business Square, which participated in Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund 2013 open call. A stop-motion animated feature, that mixes a future world and a mythological past.
With these three-part partnerships Los Cabos Film Festival approaches in its goal of reducing distances between producers and filmmakers from Mexico, U.S. and Canada, between each other and with the rest of the world.
Jorge Michel Grau, Emma Films, Filmoption and Alonso Aguilar-Castillo, Los Cabos Film Fest Director.
Industry Deals Announcements
Jorge Michel Grau and Mayra Espinosa Castro form Velarium Arts and Andrew Corkin from Uncorked Productions, will produce Grau’s next film Yamaha 300, pact developed in Los Cabos Film Fest.
In addition, Velarium Arts, EMAfilms and Filmoption International are teaming up to co-produce Multiplier by Rodrigo Hernández, Mayra Espinosa Castro & Jorge Michel Grau (Velarium Arts), Anne-Marie Gélinas and Benoit Beaulieu (EMAfilms) and Andrew Noble (Filmoption International) signed the deal in Cannes for Hernandez’s sci-fi.
The film is currently in development with an aim for principal photography to start in Mexico in 2015. Post-production, including the visual effects, will take place in Montreal.
At Los Cabos International Film Festival, Velarium Arts did the first pitching to Anne Marie and Andrew Noble for “Multiplier”.
"Los Cabos Film Fest is the place were we first did a pitch to Anne Marie and Andrew Noble about Multiplier at the meeting point were all the industry gets together, so this is how everything started so good. Also, by the beach, Andrew Corkin listened our Yamaha 300 project and he loved it, our plan is to keep things moving and keep closing deals in order to shoot these two projects in 2015" mentioned Mayra Castro (Velarium Arts) to Los Cabos Film Fest.
Also, Machete Films is co-producing X Quinientos from Juan Andres Arango (La Playa DC), that is also produced by Montreal-based Peripheria Productions and Septima Films in Colombia.Peripheria’s Yanick Letourneau and Machete’s Edher Campos first met at Los Cabos where they start talking about the project.
"Yamaha 300"
For more information: www.cabosfilmfestival.com
Come And See What The Neighbors Are Doing
Mexico, Canada and USA showcase their best films to the world.
About Tribeca Film Institute ® ( http://www.tribecafilminstitute.org )
Tribeca Film Institute champions storytellers to be catalysts for change in their communities and around the world. Through grants and professional development programs, Tfi supports a diverse, exceptional group of filmmakers and media artists, providing them resources needed to fully realize their stories and connect with audiences. The Institute’s educational programming leverages an extensive film community network to help underserved New York City students learn filmmaking and gain the media skills necessary to be productive citizens and creative individuals in the 21st century. Featuring hands-on training and exposure to socially relevant films, the Institute administers programs to more than 25,000 students annually. Tfi was founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in the wake of September 11, 2001 and is a 501(c)(3) year-round nonprofit arts organization.
- 5/28/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
This Friday April 25th The Filadelfia celebrates its third annual edition with an impressive line up of the best of Latino film from Mexico to Chile to Colombia, The Us and even a film made with the youth of Philly. Opening night film will be the super 1943 classic ‘Maria Candelaria’ starring Dolores Del Rio. For those near the city of brotherly amor we’ve done ya homework and listed their films below!
Opening Night: Maria Candelaria (Mexico)
Starring Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendáriz, Maria Candelaria was the first Mexican film to be screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, and the first Latin American film awarded the Gran Prix. Gabriel Figueroa, the film’s cinematographer, was nominated for an Academy Award for The Night of the Iguana, and is often referred to as “the Fourth Muralist” of Mexico.
A young journalist presses an old artist (Alberto Galán ) to show a portrait of a naked indigenous woman that he has in his study. The body of the movie is a flashback to Xochimilco, Mexico, in 1909. The film is set right before the Mexican Revolution, and Xochimilco is an area with beautiful landscapes inhabited mostly by indigenous people.
The woman in the painting is María Candelaria (Dolores del Rio), a young Indian woman who is constantly rejected by her own people for being the daughter of a prostitute. She and her lover, Lorenzo Rafael (Pedro Armendariz), face constant struggles throughout the film. They are honest and hardworking, yet nothing ever goes right for them. Don Damian (Miguel Inclán), a jealous Mestizo store owner who wants María for himself, prevents them from getting married. He kills a piglet that María and Lorenzo plan to sell for profit and he refuses to buy vegetables from them. When María falls ill with malaria, Don Damian refuses to give the couple the quinine medicine necessary to fight the disease. Lorenzo breaks into his shop to steal the medicine, and he also takes a wedding dress for María. Lorenzo goes to prison for stealing, and María agrees to model for the painter to pay for his release. The artist begins painting a portrait of María, but when he asks her to pose nude she refuses.
The artist finishes the painting with the nude body of another woman. When the people of Xochimilco see the painting, they assume it is María Candelaria and stone her to death.Finally, Lorenzo escapes from prison )to carry María's lifeless body through Xochimilco's canal of the dead.
Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (Venezuela)
The third film from the filmmaker and plastic artist Mariana Rondón, Pelo Malo stars Junior, a 9 year-old with "bad hair". He wants to have it straightened for his yearbook picture, like a fashionable pop singer. This puts him at odds with his mother Marta. The more Junior tries to look sharp and make his mother love him, the more she rejects him, until he is cornered, face to face with a painful decision.
To Kill A Man/Matar A Un Hombre (Chile)
Read the Review
Read the Interview with Dir. Alejandro Fernandez Almendras
A thriller about a hardworking family man Jorge who is just barely making ends meet. When he gets mugged by Kalule, a neighborhood delinquent, Jorge's son decides to confront Kalule, only to get himself shot in the process. Sentenced to a scant 2 years in prison for the offense, Kalule, released and now intent on revenge, goes on the warpath, terrorizing Jorge's family. With his wife, son and daughter at the mercy of a thug, Jorge has no choice but to take justice into his own hands, and live with the emotional and psychological consequences.
Lines of class and masculinity ignite friction in this rugged thriller, adeptly shot with a discerning eye. Director Alejandro Fernández Almendras elevates raw grit to a new level with a tone that is both elemental and prophetic. Rife with unnerving tension, To Kill a Man is ultimately a surprising exploration of the heavy burden of what it takes to do what the title suggests.
Anina (Colombia)
Read the Review
Anina Yatay Salas is a ten-year-old girl. All her names form palindromes, making her the butt of her classmates’ jokes, and especially of Yisel’s, who Anina sees as an “elephant.” One day, fed up with all the taunting, Anina starts a fight with Yisel during recess. The incident ends with the principal penalizing the girls and calling their parents.Anina receives her punishment inside a sealed black envelope, which she is told not to open until she meets with the principal again a week later.She is also forbidden to tell anyone about the envelope. Her classmates pressure her to find out what the punishment will be, while they imagine cruel physical torture.
Anina, in her anxiousness to find out what horrible punishment awaits her in the mysterious black envelope, will get mixed up in a series of troubles, involving secret loves, confessed hatreds, close friendships, dreadful enemies, some loving teachers, and also some evil teachers.Without her realizing it, Anina’s efforts to understand the content of the envelope turn into an attempt to understand the world and her place in it.
The Devil’S Music (USA)
When the new sound of jazz first spread across America in the early twentieth-century, it left delight – and controversy – in its wake.As jazz's popularity grew, so did campaigns to censor "the devil's music." This documentary classic has been hailed by the New York Times as a documentary that "addressing the complex interaction of race and class… engages viewers in a conversation as vigorous as the art it chronicles,” featuring timeless performances by artists such as Louis Armstrong and vocalist Rachelle Ferrelle, plus interviews with giants of social and musical criticism such as Albert Murray, Marian MacPartland, Studs Terkel, and Michael Eric Dyson. The Devil's Music is Written, Produced and Directed by Maria Agui Carter and Calvin A. Lindsay Jr., and Narrated by Dion Graham.
I, Undocumented/Yo, Indocumentada (Venezuela)
Yo Indocumentada (I, Undocumented) , exposes the struggles of transgender people in Venezuela. The film, Andrea Baranenko’s first feature-length production, tells the story of three Venezuelan women fighting for their right to have an identity.
Tamara Adrián, 58, is a lawyer; Desirée Pérez, 46, is a hairdresser; and Victoria González, 27, has been a visual arts student since 2009. These women share more than their nationality: they all carry identifications with masculine names that do not correspond to their actual identities. They are transgender women, who long ago assumed their gender and now defend it in a homophobic and transphobic society.
The House That Jack Built (USA )
Jack Maldonado is an ambitious Latino man who fueled by misguided nostalgia, buys a small apartment building in the Bronx and moves his family into the apartments to live rent-free. His parents, Carlos and Martha, sister Nadia, brother Richie and his wife Rosa, Grandmother/Abuela and cousins Hector and Manny, all under one roof. Tension builds quickly as Jack imposes his views on everyone around him, including his fiancée, Lily. All the while, he hides the fact that his corner store is a front for selling marijuana but soon has to deal with new unwanted competitive forces. It's only a matter of time before Jack's family and 'business' lives collide in tragic fashion.
Aqui Y Alla Crossing Borders (USA)
The “Aquí y Allá’ transnational public art project explored the impact of immigration in the lives of Mexican immigrant youth in Philadelphia in connection with youth in Chihuahua, Mexico. The documentary highlights the testimonials of the youth on both sides of the border working towards the creation of a collaborative mural in South Philadelphia.
Cesar’S Last Fast (USA)
Read the Review
In 1988, Cesar Chavez embarked on what would be his last act of protest in his remarkable life. Driven in part to pay penance for feeling he had not done enough, Chavez began his “Fast for Life,” a 36-day water-only hunger strike, to draw attention to the horrific effects of unfettered pesticide use on farm workers, their families, and their communities.
Using never-before-seen footage of Chavez during his fast and testimony from those closest to him, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee weave together the larger story of Chavez’s life, vision, and legacy. A deeply religious man, Chavez’s moral clarity in organizing and standing with farm workers at risk of his own life humbled his family, friends, and the world. Cesar’s Last Fast is a moving and definitive portrait of the leader of a people who became an American icon of struggle and freedom.
La Camioneta (Guantemala)
Every day dozens of decommissioned school buses leave the United States on a southward migration that carries them to Guatemala, where they are repaired, repainted, and resurrected as the brightly-colored camionetas that bring the vast majority of Guatemalans to work each day. La Camioneta follows one such bus on its transformative journey: a journey between North and South, between life and death, and through an unfolding collection of moments, people, and places that serve to quietly remind us of the interconnected worlds in which we live.
Forbidden Lovers Meant To Be (USA)
Working with talented high school students from North Philadelphia at Taller Puertorriqueño’s Youth Artist Program, filmmakers Joanna Siegel, Melissa Beatriz Skolnick, and Kate Zambon sought to capture the personal and artistic journeys of the youth through film. While facilitating collaborative film workshops with the students, themes of race/ethnicity, cultures, language, and identity emerged. Throughout this process of engaging in story development and visual representation, the students created a video of their own, while the filmmakers documented the process using metafilm techniques. The students' short film, Forbidden Lovers Meant to Be, highlights the talent and creativity of these youth. Forbidden Lovers Meant to Be was created by the spring 2012 Youth Artist Program participants: Amy Lee Flores, Ricardo Lopez, Michael Mendez, Zayris Rivera, Tashyra Suarez, Nestor Tamayo, Yoeni Torres, Karina Ureña Vargas, and Kara Williams. (Amy Lee Flores, Ricardo Lopez, Michael Mendez)
Tire Die (Argentina)
The first film of the first Latin American documentary film school (The Escuela Documental de Santa Fe), this documentary focuses on the children in the neighborhood known as Tire Dié in the city of Santa Fe, Argentina, who wait daily for the passing train to ask for money from the passengers, shouting “Tire dié!” (Toss me a dime!).
Dubbed as the father of the New Latin American Cinema, Fernando Birriwas one of the first filmmakers to document poverty and underdevelopment. Tire Dié was part of the exhibition, Latin American Visions, produced by International House, 1989-1991.
The Illiterates/Las Analfabetas (Chile)
Ximena, played by the incomparable Paulina García (Gloria) is an illiterate woman in her fifties, who has learned to live on her own to keep her illiteracy a secret. Jackeline, is a young unemployed elementary school teacher, who tries to convince Ximena to take reading classes. Persuading her proves to be an almost impossible task, till one day, Jackeline finds something Ximena has been keeping as her only treasure since she was a child: a letter Ximena’s father left when he abandoned her many years before. Thus, the two women embark on a learning journey where they discover that there are many ways of being illiterate, and that not knowing how to read is just one of them.
For the schedule please visit: http://flaff.org/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
Opening Night: Maria Candelaria (Mexico)
Starring Dolores del Rio and Pedro Armendáriz, Maria Candelaria was the first Mexican film to be screened at the Cannes International Film Festival, and the first Latin American film awarded the Gran Prix. Gabriel Figueroa, the film’s cinematographer, was nominated for an Academy Award for The Night of the Iguana, and is often referred to as “the Fourth Muralist” of Mexico.
A young journalist presses an old artist (Alberto Galán ) to show a portrait of a naked indigenous woman that he has in his study. The body of the movie is a flashback to Xochimilco, Mexico, in 1909. The film is set right before the Mexican Revolution, and Xochimilco is an area with beautiful landscapes inhabited mostly by indigenous people.
The woman in the painting is María Candelaria (Dolores del Rio), a young Indian woman who is constantly rejected by her own people for being the daughter of a prostitute. She and her lover, Lorenzo Rafael (Pedro Armendariz), face constant struggles throughout the film. They are honest and hardworking, yet nothing ever goes right for them. Don Damian (Miguel Inclán), a jealous Mestizo store owner who wants María for himself, prevents them from getting married. He kills a piglet that María and Lorenzo plan to sell for profit and he refuses to buy vegetables from them. When María falls ill with malaria, Don Damian refuses to give the couple the quinine medicine necessary to fight the disease. Lorenzo breaks into his shop to steal the medicine, and he also takes a wedding dress for María. Lorenzo goes to prison for stealing, and María agrees to model for the painter to pay for his release. The artist begins painting a portrait of María, but when he asks her to pose nude she refuses.
The artist finishes the painting with the nude body of another woman. When the people of Xochimilco see the painting, they assume it is María Candelaria and stone her to death.Finally, Lorenzo escapes from prison )to carry María's lifeless body through Xochimilco's canal of the dead.
Bad Hair/Pelo Malo (Venezuela)
The third film from the filmmaker and plastic artist Mariana Rondón, Pelo Malo stars Junior, a 9 year-old with "bad hair". He wants to have it straightened for his yearbook picture, like a fashionable pop singer. This puts him at odds with his mother Marta. The more Junior tries to look sharp and make his mother love him, the more she rejects him, until he is cornered, face to face with a painful decision.
To Kill A Man/Matar A Un Hombre (Chile)
Read the Review
Read the Interview with Dir. Alejandro Fernandez Almendras
A thriller about a hardworking family man Jorge who is just barely making ends meet. When he gets mugged by Kalule, a neighborhood delinquent, Jorge's son decides to confront Kalule, only to get himself shot in the process. Sentenced to a scant 2 years in prison for the offense, Kalule, released and now intent on revenge, goes on the warpath, terrorizing Jorge's family. With his wife, son and daughter at the mercy of a thug, Jorge has no choice but to take justice into his own hands, and live with the emotional and psychological consequences.
Lines of class and masculinity ignite friction in this rugged thriller, adeptly shot with a discerning eye. Director Alejandro Fernández Almendras elevates raw grit to a new level with a tone that is both elemental and prophetic. Rife with unnerving tension, To Kill a Man is ultimately a surprising exploration of the heavy burden of what it takes to do what the title suggests.
Anina (Colombia)
Read the Review
Anina Yatay Salas is a ten-year-old girl. All her names form palindromes, making her the butt of her classmates’ jokes, and especially of Yisel’s, who Anina sees as an “elephant.” One day, fed up with all the taunting, Anina starts a fight with Yisel during recess. The incident ends with the principal penalizing the girls and calling their parents.Anina receives her punishment inside a sealed black envelope, which she is told not to open until she meets with the principal again a week later.She is also forbidden to tell anyone about the envelope. Her classmates pressure her to find out what the punishment will be, while they imagine cruel physical torture.
Anina, in her anxiousness to find out what horrible punishment awaits her in the mysterious black envelope, will get mixed up in a series of troubles, involving secret loves, confessed hatreds, close friendships, dreadful enemies, some loving teachers, and also some evil teachers.Without her realizing it, Anina’s efforts to understand the content of the envelope turn into an attempt to understand the world and her place in it.
The Devil’S Music (USA)
When the new sound of jazz first spread across America in the early twentieth-century, it left delight – and controversy – in its wake.As jazz's popularity grew, so did campaigns to censor "the devil's music." This documentary classic has been hailed by the New York Times as a documentary that "addressing the complex interaction of race and class… engages viewers in a conversation as vigorous as the art it chronicles,” featuring timeless performances by artists such as Louis Armstrong and vocalist Rachelle Ferrelle, plus interviews with giants of social and musical criticism such as Albert Murray, Marian MacPartland, Studs Terkel, and Michael Eric Dyson. The Devil's Music is Written, Produced and Directed by Maria Agui Carter and Calvin A. Lindsay Jr., and Narrated by Dion Graham.
I, Undocumented/Yo, Indocumentada (Venezuela)
Yo Indocumentada (I, Undocumented) , exposes the struggles of transgender people in Venezuela. The film, Andrea Baranenko’s first feature-length production, tells the story of three Venezuelan women fighting for their right to have an identity.
Tamara Adrián, 58, is a lawyer; Desirée Pérez, 46, is a hairdresser; and Victoria González, 27, has been a visual arts student since 2009. These women share more than their nationality: they all carry identifications with masculine names that do not correspond to their actual identities. They are transgender women, who long ago assumed their gender and now defend it in a homophobic and transphobic society.
The House That Jack Built (USA )
Jack Maldonado is an ambitious Latino man who fueled by misguided nostalgia, buys a small apartment building in the Bronx and moves his family into the apartments to live rent-free. His parents, Carlos and Martha, sister Nadia, brother Richie and his wife Rosa, Grandmother/Abuela and cousins Hector and Manny, all under one roof. Tension builds quickly as Jack imposes his views on everyone around him, including his fiancée, Lily. All the while, he hides the fact that his corner store is a front for selling marijuana but soon has to deal with new unwanted competitive forces. It's only a matter of time before Jack's family and 'business' lives collide in tragic fashion.
Aqui Y Alla Crossing Borders (USA)
The “Aquí y Allá’ transnational public art project explored the impact of immigration in the lives of Mexican immigrant youth in Philadelphia in connection with youth in Chihuahua, Mexico. The documentary highlights the testimonials of the youth on both sides of the border working towards the creation of a collaborative mural in South Philadelphia.
Cesar’S Last Fast (USA)
Read the Review
In 1988, Cesar Chavez embarked on what would be his last act of protest in his remarkable life. Driven in part to pay penance for feeling he had not done enough, Chavez began his “Fast for Life,” a 36-day water-only hunger strike, to draw attention to the horrific effects of unfettered pesticide use on farm workers, their families, and their communities.
Using never-before-seen footage of Chavez during his fast and testimony from those closest to him, directors Richard Ray Perez and Lorena Parlee weave together the larger story of Chavez’s life, vision, and legacy. A deeply religious man, Chavez’s moral clarity in organizing and standing with farm workers at risk of his own life humbled his family, friends, and the world. Cesar’s Last Fast is a moving and definitive portrait of the leader of a people who became an American icon of struggle and freedom.
La Camioneta (Guantemala)
Every day dozens of decommissioned school buses leave the United States on a southward migration that carries them to Guatemala, where they are repaired, repainted, and resurrected as the brightly-colored camionetas that bring the vast majority of Guatemalans to work each day. La Camioneta follows one such bus on its transformative journey: a journey between North and South, between life and death, and through an unfolding collection of moments, people, and places that serve to quietly remind us of the interconnected worlds in which we live.
Forbidden Lovers Meant To Be (USA)
Working with talented high school students from North Philadelphia at Taller Puertorriqueño’s Youth Artist Program, filmmakers Joanna Siegel, Melissa Beatriz Skolnick, and Kate Zambon sought to capture the personal and artistic journeys of the youth through film. While facilitating collaborative film workshops with the students, themes of race/ethnicity, cultures, language, and identity emerged. Throughout this process of engaging in story development and visual representation, the students created a video of their own, while the filmmakers documented the process using metafilm techniques. The students' short film, Forbidden Lovers Meant to Be, highlights the talent and creativity of these youth. Forbidden Lovers Meant to Be was created by the spring 2012 Youth Artist Program participants: Amy Lee Flores, Ricardo Lopez, Michael Mendez, Zayris Rivera, Tashyra Suarez, Nestor Tamayo, Yoeni Torres, Karina Ureña Vargas, and Kara Williams. (Amy Lee Flores, Ricardo Lopez, Michael Mendez)
Tire Die (Argentina)
The first film of the first Latin American documentary film school (The Escuela Documental de Santa Fe), this documentary focuses on the children in the neighborhood known as Tire Dié in the city of Santa Fe, Argentina, who wait daily for the passing train to ask for money from the passengers, shouting “Tire dié!” (Toss me a dime!).
Dubbed as the father of the New Latin American Cinema, Fernando Birriwas one of the first filmmakers to document poverty and underdevelopment. Tire Dié was part of the exhibition, Latin American Visions, produced by International House, 1989-1991.
The Illiterates/Las Analfabetas (Chile)
Ximena, played by the incomparable Paulina García (Gloria) is an illiterate woman in her fifties, who has learned to live on her own to keep her illiteracy a secret. Jackeline, is a young unemployed elementary school teacher, who tries to convince Ximena to take reading classes. Persuading her proves to be an almost impossible task, till one day, Jackeline finds something Ximena has been keeping as her only treasure since she was a child: a letter Ximena’s father left when he abandoned her many years before. Thus, the two women embark on a learning journey where they discover that there are many ways of being illiterate, and that not knowing how to read is just one of them.
For the schedule please visit: http://flaff.org/
Written by Juan Caceres . LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature on SydneysBuzz that highlights Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow [At]LatinoBuzz on Twitter and Facebook...
- 4/23/2014
- by Juan Caceres
- Sydney's Buzz
Opening night’s screening was the debut film of Mexican filmmaker ---- The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gato) the debut feature of Claudia Sainte Luce. It is close to autobiographical as it tells of 22-year-old Claudia living alone in a big city in Mexico. One night, she ends up in the emergency room with signs of appendicitis. There she meets Martha, lying on the bed next to her. 46-year-old Martha has 4 children and endless lust for life, in spite of her illness. Moved by the lonely young woman, Martha invites Claudia to come and live with her when she leaves the hospital. At first, Claudia is bewildered by the somewhat chaotic organization of the household, but soon she finds her place in the tribe. And while Martha is getting weaker, Claudia's bond with each member of the family gets stronger day by day. The director’s honest vulnerability touched me as much as the movie.
During the Toronto Film Festival, Claudia told the interviewer at Twitch:
“The character Claudia has the obsession of cutting out funny newspaper notes. Before the filming began, I read a note about the appearance of some catfishes in an American city. The catfishes always live in family so I thought it was curious. Having cut the titular ("los insólitos peces gato"), I pasted it on the fish bowl. In the movie, Claudia begins sleeping in Armando's bedroom and pastes that sticker.
She (the mother) had eight years to think what she wanted to say to their children. For eight years her death was imminent. She had a lot of time of think what to say but maybe not what to do.
I think every member of the family is amazing and their force is staying together. That's why I called the film The Amazing Catfish.”
Claudia said more to me about the autobiographical part (the rest is fiction):
“I made this movie to thank this family that gave me a sense of belonging. The more I helped Martha in her dying process and living the additional time Death was giving her, I understood that you have to live with the Death by your side every day to value your own life. They saw me; when someone sees you, you become alive, you exist and that's what they gave me, existence.’
This film which premiered in Locarno where it won the Young Jury Award went on to Toronto 2013 where it won the Fipresci Critics’ Discovery Award. The next month it played at the Morelia Film Festival. At the Baja Film Fest it won the Mexico Primero Award. It also played at the Rotterdam and the Belgrade Film Festivals. This Mexican-French coproduction was sold by France’s premiere international sales agent Pyramide. Knowing the head of Pyramide International’s Eric Lagesse, the filmmaker can feel secure that she is in good hands and that the film will play to a broad and international range of audiences as it deals with a dysfunctional family, having both funny and sensitive parts.
It has already sold to Strand Releasing for U.S , Austria went to Polyfilm, Belgium – Imagine, France – Pyramide, Germany – Arsenal, Japan - Bitters End, Latin America - Palmera International, Mexico – Canibal, Netherlands - Imagine , Switzerland – Cineworx, Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films.
The next day we saw Eco de la montaña (Echo form the Mountain), Nicolas Echevarria’s documentary about an indigenous artist of the Wixarika people in Jalisco whose traditional mural, made of millions of small beads, was installed (incorrectly) in the Paris metro station Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre in 1977 at a grand ceremony by the French and Mexican Presidents who failed to invite him. Since then Santos de la Torre has lived forgotten and isolated in his village in the Sierra Madre Mountains. As the film follows him and his family on their yearly peyote ritual and pilgrimage to Wirikuta and other Wixarika sacred places and as he creates a fourth mural is unfolded in such a modern way that I think it should open discussions of how the artistic taps into the higher sources of creativity among the selected guests of this festival. The producer Michael Fitzgerald was here with his wife, in from Taos where they live. Michael Fitzgerald produced such films as Malcolm Loewry’s Under the Volcano and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, another film Arriagas wrote, Bruce Beresford’s Mr. Johnson. Such illustrious company!
Gary Meyer and I sat together during the outdoor screening in the plaza. Of Horses and Men (Isa: Filmsharks), a wonderfully droll film from first time filmmaker and Iceland’s submission for this year’s Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film was just covered in my blog on Indiewire. It was a perfect film for showing here with its magnificent landscapes where horses are part of the villagers’ lives as they are in many part of Mexican culture. For a review and an interview with its director, click here for the interview and here for the review on SydneysBuzz.
Seeing Iceland reminded me of Jim Stark, as did the Zellner Brothers' Kumiko, Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine), the sleeper of Sundance. This film of a young Japanese woman’s trip to Fargo, Minnesota in search of the money Steve Buscemi buried in the movie Fargo, with its large snowy landscapes and cold snow which could not be more the opposite of this lush tropical paradise reminded me of Jim Stark’s Cold Fever which was also about a Japanese fish-out-of-water in the freezing Icelandic climates, though David Zellner was not aware of that film until after his own was finished. When we went upstairs for cocktails, how surprised I was to see that Jim Stark himself is also there, as Marina’s guest, giving master classes to the young Mexican filmmakers. He is working on at least two features now with Mexican directors and has bought a house in Mexico City just as he did in Iceland when he was active there.
And yet another coincidence: the star of Kumiko is Rinko Kikuchi who played an important role in Arriaga’s Babel. And, just to throw in one more coincidence, Babel's director, Alejandro González Iñárritu will be one of the special guests at the next festival I am about to go to, Cartagena Colombia's Ficci (Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias).
Continuing the tradition of ArteCareyes showcasing emerging talent, eight young filmmakers showed their shorts after which we all had lunch and discussed their films and their plans with them. The filmmakers will be ones you will hear more about in the near future, so here are their names:
. Manuel Camacho Bustillo (Blackout, Chapter 4: Calling Neverland), a film Gary Meyer particularly liked
. Sofia Carrillo (The Sad House), a film Jarrett and I loved.
. Erik de Luna Fors (Home Appliance). Everyone liked this darkly humorous animation
. Amaury Vergara Z (Tide). We called him over to discuss this dreamy, mysterious story of a young man of the land.
. Indira Velasco (Music for the ultimate dream). This film was a marvelous study of music and life
. Lubianca Duran (Supermodern times). Wonderful tug-of-war between Kodak and Digital. Very funny old-fashioned silent take on modern times.
. Ricardo Torres Castro (Dry Land). Animation with a message. Well done 7 minutes.
. Dalia Huerta Cano (The End of the Existence of Things). How a boy fasses the loss of a great sadness. Really libertating.
I was sorry that I had to miss the closing night film ¡Que viva Mexico! Partially filmed 1931 by the master Sergei Eisenstein shortly after the Mexican Revolution but never edited and show by the great Dp Gabriel Figueroa (whose show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art was extraordinary). The 1931 uncredited version editor was Kenneth Anger. Also uncredited technical advisors for foreign locations are the great muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siquieros (who coincidently has a mural newly restored on Los Angeles' Olvera Street). Completed finally in the 1970s based on Eisenstein’s writings and his own memories, three sements were shown with live accompaniment commissioned by ArteCareyes based on a guiding score Eisenstein worked on with Sergei Prokofiev by the Ensemble Cine Mudo.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this event as a 12. It is an event matched only by the million dollar trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petershof and the set of Stalingrad which 25 U.S. Distributors, Anne Thompson, Peter and I were invited to by Rosskino in 2012 when our Italianate Eleonora Granata was the Russian Film Commissioner in L.A.
This work in progress shows a promise reaching beyond this event. The practical idealism and magic of the location and the timing of such an Arts & Film event, together with the other elements in this magnificent venue are thrilling. I will always be grateful to Steven, John and Filippo for including me.
During the Toronto Film Festival, Claudia told the interviewer at Twitch:
“The character Claudia has the obsession of cutting out funny newspaper notes. Before the filming began, I read a note about the appearance of some catfishes in an American city. The catfishes always live in family so I thought it was curious. Having cut the titular ("los insólitos peces gato"), I pasted it on the fish bowl. In the movie, Claudia begins sleeping in Armando's bedroom and pastes that sticker.
She (the mother) had eight years to think what she wanted to say to their children. For eight years her death was imminent. She had a lot of time of think what to say but maybe not what to do.
I think every member of the family is amazing and their force is staying together. That's why I called the film The Amazing Catfish.”
Claudia said more to me about the autobiographical part (the rest is fiction):
“I made this movie to thank this family that gave me a sense of belonging. The more I helped Martha in her dying process and living the additional time Death was giving her, I understood that you have to live with the Death by your side every day to value your own life. They saw me; when someone sees you, you become alive, you exist and that's what they gave me, existence.’
This film which premiered in Locarno where it won the Young Jury Award went on to Toronto 2013 where it won the Fipresci Critics’ Discovery Award. The next month it played at the Morelia Film Festival. At the Baja Film Fest it won the Mexico Primero Award. It also played at the Rotterdam and the Belgrade Film Festivals. This Mexican-French coproduction was sold by France’s premiere international sales agent Pyramide. Knowing the head of Pyramide International’s Eric Lagesse, the filmmaker can feel secure that she is in good hands and that the film will play to a broad and international range of audiences as it deals with a dysfunctional family, having both funny and sensitive parts.
It has already sold to Strand Releasing for U.S , Austria went to Polyfilm, Belgium – Imagine, France – Pyramide, Germany – Arsenal, Japan - Bitters End, Latin America - Palmera International, Mexico – Canibal, Netherlands - Imagine , Switzerland – Cineworx, Taiwan - Swallow Wings Films.
The next day we saw Eco de la montaña (Echo form the Mountain), Nicolas Echevarria’s documentary about an indigenous artist of the Wixarika people in Jalisco whose traditional mural, made of millions of small beads, was installed (incorrectly) in the Paris metro station Palais Royal-Musee du Louvre in 1977 at a grand ceremony by the French and Mexican Presidents who failed to invite him. Since then Santos de la Torre has lived forgotten and isolated in his village in the Sierra Madre Mountains. As the film follows him and his family on their yearly peyote ritual and pilgrimage to Wirikuta and other Wixarika sacred places and as he creates a fourth mural is unfolded in such a modern way that I think it should open discussions of how the artistic taps into the higher sources of creativity among the selected guests of this festival. The producer Michael Fitzgerald was here with his wife, in from Taos where they live. Michael Fitzgerald produced such films as Malcolm Loewry’s Under the Volcano and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, another film Arriagas wrote, Bruce Beresford’s Mr. Johnson. Such illustrious company!
Gary Meyer and I sat together during the outdoor screening in the plaza. Of Horses and Men (Isa: Filmsharks), a wonderfully droll film from first time filmmaker and Iceland’s submission for this year’s Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film was just covered in my blog on Indiewire. It was a perfect film for showing here with its magnificent landscapes where horses are part of the villagers’ lives as they are in many part of Mexican culture. For a review and an interview with its director, click here for the interview and here for the review on SydneysBuzz.
Seeing Iceland reminded me of Jim Stark, as did the Zellner Brothers' Kumiko, Treasure Hunter (Isa: Submarine), the sleeper of Sundance. This film of a young Japanese woman’s trip to Fargo, Minnesota in search of the money Steve Buscemi buried in the movie Fargo, with its large snowy landscapes and cold snow which could not be more the opposite of this lush tropical paradise reminded me of Jim Stark’s Cold Fever which was also about a Japanese fish-out-of-water in the freezing Icelandic climates, though David Zellner was not aware of that film until after his own was finished. When we went upstairs for cocktails, how surprised I was to see that Jim Stark himself is also there, as Marina’s guest, giving master classes to the young Mexican filmmakers. He is working on at least two features now with Mexican directors and has bought a house in Mexico City just as he did in Iceland when he was active there.
And yet another coincidence: the star of Kumiko is Rinko Kikuchi who played an important role in Arriaga’s Babel. And, just to throw in one more coincidence, Babel's director, Alejandro González Iñárritu will be one of the special guests at the next festival I am about to go to, Cartagena Colombia's Ficci (Festival Internacional de Cine de Cartagena de Indias).
Continuing the tradition of ArteCareyes showcasing emerging talent, eight young filmmakers showed their shorts after which we all had lunch and discussed their films and their plans with them. The filmmakers will be ones you will hear more about in the near future, so here are their names:
. Manuel Camacho Bustillo (Blackout, Chapter 4: Calling Neverland), a film Gary Meyer particularly liked
. Sofia Carrillo (The Sad House), a film Jarrett and I loved.
. Erik de Luna Fors (Home Appliance). Everyone liked this darkly humorous animation
. Amaury Vergara Z (Tide). We called him over to discuss this dreamy, mysterious story of a young man of the land.
. Indira Velasco (Music for the ultimate dream). This film was a marvelous study of music and life
. Lubianca Duran (Supermodern times). Wonderful tug-of-war between Kodak and Digital. Very funny old-fashioned silent take on modern times.
. Ricardo Torres Castro (Dry Land). Animation with a message. Well done 7 minutes.
. Dalia Huerta Cano (The End of the Existence of Things). How a boy fasses the loss of a great sadness. Really libertating.
I was sorry that I had to miss the closing night film ¡Que viva Mexico! Partially filmed 1931 by the master Sergei Eisenstein shortly after the Mexican Revolution but never edited and show by the great Dp Gabriel Figueroa (whose show at Los Angeles County Museum of Art was extraordinary). The 1931 uncredited version editor was Kenneth Anger. Also uncredited technical advisors for foreign locations are the great muralists Orozco, Rivera and Siquieros (who coincidently has a mural newly restored on Los Angeles' Olvera Street). Completed finally in the 1970s based on Eisenstein’s writings and his own memories, three sements were shown with live accompaniment commissioned by ArteCareyes based on a guiding score Eisenstein worked on with Sergei Prokofiev by the Ensemble Cine Mudo.
On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate this event as a 12. It is an event matched only by the million dollar trip to Moscow, St. Petersburg, Petershof and the set of Stalingrad which 25 U.S. Distributors, Anne Thompson, Peter and I were invited to by Rosskino in 2012 when our Italianate Eleonora Granata was the Russian Film Commissioner in L.A.
This work in progress shows a promise reaching beyond this event. The practical idealism and magic of the location and the timing of such an Arts & Film event, together with the other elements in this magnificent venue are thrilling. I will always be grateful to Steven, John and Filippo for including me.
- 3/14/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
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