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Cinematográfica Marte's program kicks off at the 15th FICM

Gabriel Andrade Espinosa

With the screening of There’s Always a First Time (1969) by José Estrada, Guillermo Murray and Mauricio Walerstein, kicked off the program dedicated to the production company Cinematográfica Marte, at the 15th Morelia International Film Festival (FICM).

The film narrates the stories of three women of different ages and social standings, who have the loss of virginity outside marriage in common, in the face of the beliefs and prejudices that women were subjected to in Mexico in the 1960s.

This program, curated in collaboration with the Cineteca Nacional, will be presenting during the festival days another six titles: The Outsiders (1967, dir. Juan Ibañez), Patsy, My Love (1969, dir. Manuel Michel), Las puertas del paraíso (1970, dir. Solomon Laiter), The Snares of Love (1969, dirs. Tito Novaro, Manuel Michel, Jorge Fons), Paraíso (1970, dir. Luis Alcoriza) and Para servir a usted (1971, dir. Jose Estrada).

The production house was founded in the sixties by the young entrepreneurs Mauricio Walerstein and Fernando Pérez Gavilán. The project arose at a time when the government was implementing state policies on the film industry and the existence of innovative filmmakers willing and eager to debut on an industrial level was evident. Cinematográfica Marte took advantage of the urgent need for a renewal of film themes and language in Mexican cinema to produce several films that were the beginning of brilliant careers in national cinema.

The presentation of the film was attended by general director of FICM, Daniela Michel, and the director of the Cineteca National, Alejandro Pelayo.

Alejandro Pelayo on the context in which Cinematográfica Marte was born:

"The context in which Cinematográfica Marte arises is the sixties, in which, as in other parts of the world, there is a cultural revolution in Mexico that is not only social and sexual but also artistic. What we know as the golden age gives its last breaths in the late fifties. Then there was a transition in which, because of union issues, new directors could not debut and, as a result, independent film bloomed."

Alejandro Pelayo on The Outsiders and its format of several small stories:

"At the end of the sixties, an emblematic film called The Outsiders (1966, dir. Juan Ibañez) is released, based on a story by Carlos Fuentes and Juan Ibáñez. This is already the beginning of a new generation of filmmakers, and the first Cinematográfica Marte film which contributes greatly to allowing the debut of a new generation of directors in small short films, because it was the only way to do it. The films could be screened in any commercial room because they were made in the Estudios América. It shouldn't surprise us that the film that is presented now - There’s Always a First Time - is three shorts on the sexual initiation of three women of different social classes, because it was in the only way they could be done. By a previous arrangement, Estudios América could only make short films, so like in The Outsders, they do several stories that, in fact, are the same film".

Alejandro Pelayo on what followed Cinematográfica Marte:

"Cinematográfica Marte, founded by Mauricio Walerstein and Fernando Pérez Gavilán, fulfils the role of being a preamble to the state policy that will come from 1961 of auteur cinema produced by the state.