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Gael García Bernal in FICM 2011

Administrador

Mexican actor Gael García Bernal will be at the 9^th Morelia International Film Festival presenting the program “The Invisibles,” which consists of four documentary short films that he co-directed with Marc Silver. The films depict different aspects of Central American migrants’ journey to the United States through Mexico. The program opens Thursday, Oct. 20, at 8 p.m. in the Plaza Benito Juárez.

The documentaries feature interviews with prominent intellectuals Cristina Rivera Garza, Diego Osorno, Lydia Cacho, Fernanda Solórzano, Gabriela Warkentin, Fabio Morábito, León Krauze and Fabrizio Mejía Madrid about the current reality of immigration and its politics; and about borders, illegality and what it means to be Mexican.

García Bernal will also present the film The Loneliest Planet, along with director Julia Loktev. And he’ll receive this year’s Tradicional prize—100,000 pesos—bestowed by tequila producer Casa Tequila Cuervo to recognize García Bernal’s cinematographic work.

García Bernal was the actor honored at FICM 2007, when the festival screened his directorial debut, Déficit. In 2005, he and Mexican actor Diego Luna founded the Ambulante film festival, whose call for entries coincides with the Morelia International Film Festival.

Jean-Christophe Berjon, former delegate of the Cannes Festival Critics’ Week, described García in 2007 as an “eclectic” actor: “Gael García Bernal captivated us in the successful film Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch),” Berjon said. “Then he became an international star with Walter Salles’ Motorcycle Diaries, Pedro Almodóvar’s Bad Education and then with Babel alongside Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.”

He continued: “Gael García Bernal is an eclectic actor who, with similar ease, changes sex, accent, language and nationality, alternating between Latin America, Europe and Hollywood.”

The actor has received frequent recognition for his work including the Ariel for Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) in 2000, the Chopard Trophy for Male Newcomer in Cannes in 2003, the Chlotrudis Award for Bad Education in 2004, as well as two MTV Movie awards, among others.