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The FICM Is to Present a Film Series of Emilio "El Indio" Fernández at the MoMA in New York

Thanks to the collaboration between Daniela Michel, Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) founder and general director, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, and with the invaluable support of the Cineteca Nacional, the Filmoteca de la UNAM and Fundación Televisa, the FICM is to present the film series "El Indio: The Films of Emilio Fernández", from March 1 to 13, 2018, at the MoMA.

The program is make up by thirteen films directed, written or starred by this extraordinary figure of Mexican cinema, which date from 1935—when he made his first leading role, in the film Janitzio, by Carlos Navarro—until 1974—when he headed the cast of Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García, by Sam Peckinpah. The selection offers a look of almost four decades of its indisputable importance in the history of cinema in Mexico and abroad.

"The son of a Kickapoo Indian and a revolutionary general, Emilio Fernández—known to generations of Mexican filmgoers as “El Indio”—was the most celebrated filmmaker to emerge from the Golden Age of Mexican cinema (...) Fernández brought an image of an eternal, elemental Mexico to the international festival circuit of the 1940s and ’50s, winning awards in Cannes (María Candelaria), Venice (La perla), and Karolvy Vary (Río Escondido)," says on the MoMA website.

Chloë Roddick, FICM programmer, comments on the work of Emilio "El Indio" Fernández:

"With his long-time collaborator, the Mexican photographer Gabriel Figueroa, director Emilio “El Indio” Fernández created a new cinematic language; a unique nationalistic style that aimed to break away from Hollywood. Fernandez' cinema was rural, folkloric and traditional, and sought to construct a new Mexican identity. 'There only exists one Mexico', the director famously stated, 'the one I invented'."

The films that make up the "El Indio: The Films of Emilio Fernández" program are:

Janitzio (1935, dir. Carlos Navarro) – Leading role

María Candelaria (1943, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

Flor Silvestre (1943, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

La perla (1945, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

Enamorada (1946, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

Río Escondido (1947, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

The Fugitive (1947, dirs. John Ford, Emilio Fernández) – Co-Director

Salón México (1948, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

Maclovia (1948, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director

Pueblerina (1949, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

Víctimas del pecado (1950, dir. Emilio Fernández) – Director, screenwriter

El rincón de las vírgenes (1972, dir. Alberto Isaac) - Leading role

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo García (1974, dir. Sam Peckinpah) - Leading role

Previously, the FICM presented at the MoMA two series: "Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema's Golden Age", in 2015, and "Julio Bracho and the Golden Age of Mexican Cinema", in 2017; both created with the important support of the Cineteca Nacional, the Filmoteca de la UNAM and Fundación Televisa.