10 · 06 · 07

Young film makers discuss about local movies

Doris Morales/Translated by Vicente Castañar

There is no doubt whatsoever than our country’s economy, society and culture is diverse, also its ways of expression and movies are diverse as well. The ways in which films are distributed is very different in the North and in the South, in Tijuana, Chiapas, Monterrey and Michoacán. Young film makers talked about all this yesterday at the conference named Cine regional, which took place yesterday at Teatro José Rubén Romero Flores.

The moderator was the director of Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, Imcine. The director introduced each participant, Catalina Reyes Alberich, from Mexico City, who now lives in Tijuana, where she studied Communications and publicity. Catalina has filmed various short films, even one for Mujeres al borde de una ataque de cine en la frontera. She is currently participating a the 5th Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia with her film called Algesia.

Carolina Reyes started by telling her audience that she makes fantasy and horror short films, a strong genre in Tijuana. She has done this independently with her producer and with her business partner Aarón Sosa.

Pedro Daniel Lopez, from San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, was also at the conference. He is part of a group called Proyecto indígena de la frontera sur, with whom he has created various documentaries which have been shown at Chile, the US, Germany and México. He is currently working on a documentary called La pequeña semilla en el asfalto, this film is financed by Opinión Media, from the Rockefeller Foundation. This documentary is about the identity search of young native girls whose families escaped from religious and political problems. Pedro’s best films are: Nostalgia de nuestra tierra (2005), Día de muertos en la tierra de los murciélagos (2003) and La tierra es de quien la trabaja (2002).

His films reflect the reality of native communities. The filmmaker mentioned that after the Zapatista movement, many journalists and filmmakers recorded everything that was going on. Video has been an excellent tool to denounce government abuse and human rights violations and massacres. NGOs have been working with different communities; they have been taught how to operate a video camera so they can denounce abuse. Many videos have been recorded and they have been shown at festivals or at their home towns.

Aarón Soto, from Tijuana, Baja California, who is currently finishing his first film, El tiempo vuela en Tijuana, which belongs to the fantasy and horror genre, mentioned that he is a great admirer of these genres thanks to Guillermo del Toro’s El laberinto del fauno. Aaron also thanked the Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia, and talked about this festival’s great work as a promoter of short feature films.

Then it was Juan Pablo Arroyo’s turn, he is from Morelia, Michoacán, he studied cinema in New York, he founded Solaris, which produces and exhibits, mainly, short films. He is currently working on his first long feature film. Arroyo mentioned that the young people’s films are very local because they are really worried about the issues that are going on in their home towns. He also admits that many are still learning but still manage to reflect the different issues they are living through.

This conference gave us the opportunity to look at different realities we are living throughout all Mexico and the different ways in which films are being produced. Only few receive aid, but many still use new technologies, like video, to talk about different issues. They are exhibiting their work at festivals or at their home towns, although there is much to be done about their work being thoroughly broadcasted. These mentioned topics were the conclusions of this conference.