10 · 19 · 06

¨En el hoyo: people who keep their feet firmly planted on the ground.¨

Doris Morales

En el hoyo (Grand Jury Prize, World Cinema Documentary, 2006 Sundance Film Festival; Best Documentary Feature, Miami International Film Festival; JVC Award for Best Director, Press Award at the Guadalajara Film Festival) has screened in several film festivals across Europe and North America and will soon premiere in Argentina.

Rulfo said that he’s still waiting to find out if his documentary will receive an Oscar nomination, and that he will continue to show his work in as many venues as he can. He also spoke about Guillermo del Toro’s El laberinto del fauno, which is likely to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. Rulfo said that El laberinto “is an extraordinary movie,” and that, even though they would be competing in different categories, he would be delighted if both of them made it to the Oscars.

“The most important thing is to work with the film you have; it’s not everyday that one makes a movie, so you have to push it as far as you can. This not only benefits audiences, but the Mexican film industry as a whole. It’s a challenge to make a film in Mexico; there’s still a lot of work to be done, and not just in documentaries, but also in cinematography; it’s important to promote and exhibit your film as much as you can, and not only work on the direction or script.”

Rulfo also talked about how his film’s urban setting marks a departure from his previous work, which has concentrated on portraying rural life in Mexico. “Our country is going through a very difficult period; we live in a polarized society that is based on racism and injustice, so I wanted to concentrate on the working class. I was proud to see how they manage to pull through, in spite of the enormous amount of effort it takes, and how they know what they want. This gives me the strength to go on working.”

He added that, in approaching the people he wanted to portray in his documentary, he knew he had to do it in a simple way and focus on the human side of things. He observed them work for a while, and identified certain characteristics, so when he finally approached them he felt that, in a way, he already knew them.

Rulfo also said that Saturday’s screening of the film would be attended by some of the people that appear in the documentary.

Tonight, Fundación José Cuervo will award Juan Carlos Rufo the Premio Tradicional, in honor of his outstanding contributions to film.