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James Ivory received the UNAM Film Library Medal at the 17th FICM

In the context of the 17th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM) and before the screening of Shakespeare Wallah (1965) American filmmaker and special guest James Ivory received the UNAM Film Library Medal from Hugo Villa, general director of UNAM Cinematographic Activities, in company of Alejandro Ramírez, president of the festival and Daniela Michel, founder and general director of the FICM.  

 

Alejandro Ramírez commented on the director’s visit to the Festival as a huge success and “having James Ivory here in Morelia is a dream come true and we are happy that his films are a curatorship that he decided on himself.” He also thanked the UNAM Film Library for being a great strategic ally because thanks to them there are many screenings of classic Mexican cinema. 

 

On his behalf Hugo Villa explained a little about the medals’ materials, which comes from the Film library duplication laboratory where national film classics are rescued and the silver with which these medals are made is recovered; he added that Ivory will take with him a part of national classic cinema, “today you take a little bit of María Félix’ magnificent eyebrows, of Pedro Armendáriz powerful gaze, of “Jaibo” against Mexico City and of Gabriel Figueroa’s always wonderful photography.”

 

James Ivory described Shakespeare Wallah, which had its premiere at the Berlinale in 1965, as an “allegory to cultural changes in India, after their independence where they wanted to celebrate their own culture and not only in cinema, where the interest for Britanic culture began to disappear and no longer exists.” 

 

Regarding the curatorship that the filmmaker himself made of Shakespeare Wallah and the other four films, Esperando a Mr- Bridge (1990), Quartet (1981), Maurice (1987) and The City of your Final Destination (2009), he commented that unlike the films that are usually selected in other festivals, “the English, vintage”, this time he chose those that were made in other countries such as India, France and North America, “I want to show my favorites and the rarest ones.”