11 · 03 · 05

Toro Negro, Best Documentary Film Award at the FICM

Por Clara Sánchez / Fotos Paulo Vidales / Imagen Latente (Jueves 3 de noviembre del 2005)

Toro Negro, winner of the Best Documentary Film Award at the FICM, provokes audiences.

By Clara Sñanchez. Photos Paulo Vidales / Imagen Latente. (Thursday, November 3rd. 2005)
Producer David R. Romay spoke with audiences after the screening of Toro Negro, a documentary that portrays the life of Fernando Pacheco, a young bullfighter from the Yucatan peninsula. The film depicts Fernando’s complex personality, which combines doses of alcoholism, violence, passion for bulls, and a codependent relationship with an older woman, as well as the desire to return to his mother’s home.

Where does the acting stop and the real life drama begin in the film?
The people portrayed in this film are not acting; we tried to show them as they really are. We shot over 50 hours of film, which we first cut to two hours and 36 minutes. We later we made the version that you just saw, which is one hour 27 minutes, and is the final cut. The reality that his film depicts can happen anywhere: Europe or Canada or anywhere else. The interviews are the only part that was purposely arranged. I don’t think these people where self-conscious about the camera, or thought about the transcendence of images. The Negro simply wanted to tell his story.

How did you edit the film? Where you satisfied with the results?
We wanted to give an impartial view of the Negro. He’s surrounded by a harsh reality that has turned him into an alleged rapist and a murderer; because of his irrepressible passion, because he doesn’t know the limit between himself and the person in front of him, but deep down he has a good heart. We wanted to give the Negro’s life a coherent structure, which took a year and two months. We wanted the story to be consistent, but also entertaining, and the result surpassed all our expectations.

How much did the film cost?
Until April of this year, we financed the film ourselves. We spent about 20 thousand dollars. Then we got 50 thousand dollars, but still haven’t been able to transfer the film to 35 mm.

What did the Negro think of the film??He was shocked. It must not be easy your own life through the eyes of somebody else, but he liked it a lot. We had to pause the film a couple of times, because it was really intense, it made him cry. Carlos said it was as if the Negro was looking at a photo album of his family. In the end, he was really grateful. We’re still in contact with him, we called him after hurricane Wilma made its way through the area, but luckily he was ok.

How did you find that character?
He found us; the film is full of coincidences. Pedro was living in the Mayan Riviera, and wanted to make a short film about a boy in search of his father. One day, after filming by a highway, he saw the bullfights and decided that the kid’s father would be a bullfighter. He started doing some research and ran into the Negro, and was so drawn by him that he asked his permission to base the father character on him. By the second day, the Negro was the main character. Carlos got there a week later, met Pedro, and offered to help him. They filmed for four weeks, came back to Mexico City looking for cooperation from the Fidecine or Foprocine, and got in contact with me. They went back to finish the film, without money, and shot the epilogue and the little girl’s birth. We made a trailer to try to sell the film.

Does this film have value as a document, historic or otherwise, of bullfighting in Mexico?
I don’t think so. We don’t like to see Fernando as a bullfighter. This isn’t a film about bulls or bullfighting, it’s about Pacheco’s life, a young man that earns $150.00 pesos a night, and works for Mario. When there are no fights, he sells beer or cleans up the ring. Fernando wants to prove his worth constantly, the bulls knock him down and he gets right up.