Mora Catlett; Juan

He received a master’s degree in film editing from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU), Czech Republic. He was a member of the National System of Creators of the National Council for Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), Mexico, and won, among other awards, the National University Award (PUN, in Spanish) in the category of Teaching of the Arts in 2009 for his career in training filmmakers at the CUEC-UNAM film school. His work has participated in more than 40 film showings and festivals around the world, including two editions of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM). His first feature film Retorno a Aztlán (In Necuepaliztli in Aztlan) (1990), the first Mexican film spoken totally in an indigenous language, won the Grand Jury Special Award at the 7th Latin American Film Festival of Trieste, Italy. He participated in the 4th FICM with his feature film Eréndira la indomable (2006), nominated for an Ariel for Best Special Effects at the 49th Ariel Awards Ceremony, Mexico, and won the Best Picture and Best Director awards at the 8th Indio International Hispanic Film Festival (iihfilmfest), California, and a Special Mention at the 10th South American Film Encounters, Marseille. In 2007 he received an award  from the Secretary of Public Education (SEP), Mexico, on UNESCO’s International Mother Language Day, for the dissemination of indigenous languages in the mass media (Náhuatl in Retorno a Aztlán and Purépecha in Eréndira la indomable). He presented his short documentary film Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Fotógrafo (1983) at the 11th FICM, which was nominated for an Ariel for Best Documentary at the 25th Ariel Awards Ceremony. He is currently in the production process of his documentary Tlalocan, la ciudad de los dioses.