FICM commemorates the Bicentenary of the Mexican Independence

On Thursday, the film El Padre Morelos by Miguel Contreras Torres, was
exhibited. Elisa Lozano, historian, offered the following biography to the
director: "Miguel Contreras Torres was born in Morelia, Michoacan. He has an
interesting story. He started his career as an actor in the silent film era in
the United States. In Mexico, he directed his first movie, Zitari. Contreras is
one of the only filmmakers who successfully achieved the transition from silent
to sound films.

Contreras was very attracted to historical topics and he made many movies
about those themes. Not only about the independence movement, but also films
like Juárez y Maximiliano, a box office hit in 1933.

He filmed El Padre Morelos in 1942, a crucial year for the history of
Mexican cinema in which more than 100 movies were produced. Many were released
in other countries. During WWII, few movies were filmed around the world.

The director was not liked because of his multitasking tendency: he wrote
scripts, directed, produced, acted and in many occasions, his main actress was
his wife, Medea de Novara.

His films were also criticized. Historian Julia Tuñon said they were "like
text books and looked like postcards." Contreras has many historical errors in
his works, but he is recognized as a Mexican director who managed to make very
well produced films even though the economical situation in the country was not
ideal.

During the presidencies of Ávila Camacho and Lázaro Cárdenas, Contreras
received money for his productions. In his movie El Padre Morelos, he based his
script on historical documents by Lucas Alaman, Carlos de Bustamante and J.
Hernandez Davalos. Domingo Soler played the part of Padre Morelos. 

Film critic Emilio García Riera said the film wasn't sufficiently accurate
from a historical point of view, but Julia Tuñon argued this statement wasn´t
true.

Translated by Lorena Villa Parkman.