09 · 18 · 17

XV anniversary, 15 questions to Daniel Giménez Cacho

In the third edition of the Morelia International Film Festival (FICM), Daniel Giménez Cacho visited the festival as a jury member of the Mexican Short Film Section. It was 2005 and the Hispanic-Mexican actor, with a more than 20-year trajectory at that time already, was one of the outstanding local figures that impelled the growth and the consolidation of the festival.

But beyond his presence as a jury or guest of the festival, GiménezCacho has been there with the films he has been part of and that have been screened in the festival: Nicotina (2003, dir. Hugo Rodriguez), which inaugurated the first edition of FICM; Voces inocentes (2004, dir. Luis Mandoki), in thesecondedition; La zona (2007, dir.Rodrigo Plá), in the 5th FICM; Somos lo que hay (2010, dir.Jorge Michel Grau), in the 8th and 11th FICM; Cabeza de vaca (1990,  dir. Nicolás Echevarría), at the 9th FICM; Cronos (1993, dir.Guillermo del Toro), at the 13th FICM; and El Santos contra La Tetona Mendoza, (2012, dirs. Andrés Couturier, Alejandro Lozano) at the 10th FICM.

To commemorate FICM's fifteenth anniversary, Daniel GiménezCachoanswers these 15 questions:

1. When was the first time you went to FICM?

It's been so long I can't even remember. I think it was the second or third edition.

2. How many editions of FICM have you attended?

Four or five.

3. What is your favorite FICM image?

Walking at night through those beautiful streets after having seen great movies and talking about them. Turning a corner and meeting friends and getting together to continue chatting.

4. What kind of movies do you like to see at FICM?

Good foreign films that are so difficult to see in Mexico and, of course, Mexican ones that are also practically impossible to see.

5. Name a movie you have seen at the FICM that marked you as a viewer.

Ida (2013), by Pawel Pawlikowski, and I was much impacted by Tenemos la carne (2016), by Emiliano Rocha Minter.

6. What is your favorite place of the theatre? ie how close to the screen do you like to be?

Close, in a place that I calculate by eye in this way: if the screen were lying in the room, it would be right in the armchair in the center, by the edge of the screen.

7. What invites you to watch a movie? (the director, the poster, the theme, the synopsis, a recommendation, a prize, etc.)

I look and read, but perhaps the most important thing is a recommendation.

8. What is your favorite place in Morelia?

The central market

9. Why do you like to attend FICM?

Because I can watch movies that I would not see otherwise and because I like to meet with the film community calmly.

10. What personalities have you met at FICM?

Juliette Binoche, Pawel Pawlikowski, Willem Dafoe and the great Carlos A. Gutierrez.

11. Name a classic Mexican movie that you like a lot.

Víctimas del pecado (1950, dirEmilio Fernández).

12. Name a contemporary Mexican movie that you like a lot.

Tenemos la carne (2016, dir.Emiliano Rocha Minter). It's great, brutal, a deep work of art.

13. What have you presented at FICM?

El Santos contra La Tetona Mendoza ... and there must be some more that I do not remember.

14. Share a special memory of FICM.

I went with my son who acted in Club Sandwich (2012, dir. Fernando Eimbcke) and he wanted to go with 12 friends. We rented a van and drove there together. We were able to stay in a hotel together, and those nights with twelve 14-year-old children are unforgettable. The other hotel guests will agree with me, for sure.

15. What do you wish FICM in its 15th anniversary?

That it has a long life and that it brings all the cinema that is not Hollywood to the forefront.