From the Visit London blog, London film festival season is on:

“London’s 8th Latin American film festival kicks off next week. The festival will show films from South American countries including Mexico, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina and Venezuela that often wouldn’t make it to the big screen in the UK. Special guests include awarding winning Argentine director Amat Escalante, the world-renowned Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón, and new Colombian sensation Jorge Navas. Screenings will take place at London venues including Tate Modern and the Institute of Contemporary Arts.”

Read more or visit the official site. The festival takes place from 26 November to 6 December.

EFE reports: Alfonso Cuarón will offer a master class in cinema at this year’s International Film Festival of Marrakech.  Now in its ninth edition, the Festival International du Film de Marrakech will take place between 4 and 12 December. Also offering workshops are American director Jim Jarmusch and Australian cinematographer Christopher Doyle (best known for his work in Hong Kong cinema).  Jaramusch, Doyle, and Cuarón’s workshops will take place 8th, 9th, and 11th December respectively.  Read more.

HR also reveals that Cuarón has shown interest in directing upcoming thriller Hanna.  In development since 2007, the film “centers on a 14-year-old Eastern European girl who has been raised by her father to be a cold-blooded killing machine.”  Atonement-director Joe Wright is currently in talks to direct.  Read more.

Since September, Cuarón made the news not only by signing a controversial petition by the Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques’ (SACD) protesting the extradition of Roman Polanski from Switzerland for an outstanding warrant dating back to his 1977 rape conviction but also for his participation in  Autism Speaks‘ “I am Autism” campaign (details below the cut).

More recently, HR reported that the director was in early stage talks to direct the remake of Jérôme Salle’s The Tourist (original title: Anthony Zimmer) , replacing Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others), originally attached to the project.  Variety reports that the production is to finally begin in February after a number of cast and crew changes since 2005.  However, as recently as last week, von Donnersmarck asserted that he was still attached to the project.  “In the trades, everything they say…I think you can discount a lot of it.  It’s just a way of talking about the business, and sometimes things get out about heated points of discussion. We’ll see how it plays out with that one.”

In October, the finalists for the AXN Film Festival were announced.  Jury members – including Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Carlos Cuarón, among others – selected ten short films from across South America which will air on AXN from 15th November to to 6th December in Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Argentina, and Venezuela.  The winner will be announced Sunday, 13th December.  Read more.  The Sunday Times carried an interview with Carlos and Alfonso Cuarón by Beverley D’Silva ahead of of the DVD release of Rudo y Cursi in the UK mid-November.  The brothers discussed their relationship growing up and making films, “Writing [Y tu mamá también], we were laughing like crazy and getting very excited. We learnt that the only way to make things happen is to take control of your material from the get-go. And it all happened from there.”

Apologies for the great delay!

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22^nd September, international autism research and advocacy organisation Autism Speaks launched its second annual world conference and the “Decade for Autism”p campaign urging governments to better fund autism research and social services for families affected by autism.  Screened at the conference was a short-film commissioned especially for the initiative called “I am Autism,” by Alfonso Cuarón and songwriter Billy Mann, who are both parents of children diagnosed with autism.  The organisation invited individuals with autism and their family to submit footage which was put together with a reading of a poem by Mann, “to show the global face of autism.”

The video, available on YouTube, immediately drew criticism from autistic self-advocates across the web.  Liz Ditz provides a long list of blog posts and articles responding to the video in the days immediately after its release while The New Republic provides coverage of Autism Speaks’ public relations disaster as well as the Autistic Self Advocacy Network’s official response (press release and blog excerpts) to “I am Autism.”

“This is the latest in a series of unethical fundraising strategies adopted by Autism Speaks,” said Ari Ne’eman, an adult on the autism spectrum and President of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN). “This type of fear mongering hurts Autistic people, by raising fear and not contributing in the slightest to accurate understanding of the needs of Autistic adults and children.”

In addition to the charge of fear mongering and misrepresentation of autism and autistic people, one of the major criticisms of the Autism Speaks campaign targets the exploitative nature of the video campaign, which featured primarily minors unable to personally consent to the use of their image.  Furthermore, rather than providing a platform for autistic persons to discuss their experiences as the name of the campaign might suggest (it is perhaps here that I find this (re)presentation so problematic, personally), the narration instead personifies and demonises autism, focusing on the burden it creates for parents of children with autism.  Thomas C. Weiss of Disabled World takes a closer look at the campaign activities of Autism Speaks, while board members from the Global and Regional Asperger Syndrome Partnership (GRASP) offer their criticisms (requires Facebook sign-in) of the organisation’s past campaigns.

In the week after the video’s release, Autism Speaks responded to the criticism, explaining: “It is an intensely personal expression by these two fathers and their hope is that the piece inspires other voices and artists in the autism community.  No one perspective can ever be the definitive voice of autism.”  The group additionally offered to remove the video “I am Autism,” but it is still available online.  There has been no response from either Mann or Cuarón.

Most recently, Claudia Wallis of Time covered some of the controversy generated by the video, including a statement from Autism Speaks’ vice-president Peter Bell, who acknowledged, “We realized it did hurt a certain segment of the population, which is why we removed the video link from our website,” also admitting the lack of autistic representation on its advisory boards.  Michael Novinson of Bryn Mawr and Harverford Colleges’ Bi-College News also offered an opinion on the controversy, “Giving autistic people a more prominent platform in their own movement may not result in medical breakthroughs, but it should help bridge cultural divides. At the very least, they can caution well-intentioned yet naïve filmmakers against portraying autism subjects as lifeless zombies powerless in their own struggle.”

Milenio reports: Expect to see A Boy and his Shoe hit the big screens in mid-2010.

The story, written by the director and his son Jonás Cuarón, relates the experiences of a French employee who moves to Scotland with her two children who encounter a series of problems from the time they arrive culminating in great drama.

In addition to previously mentioned Charlotte Gainsbourg and Daniel Auteuil,  actors Guillaume Canet and Pam Ferris are now attached to the project, which should begin to film shortly (although it is not known whether it will film on location or in studio). Read more.

In other news, IndieWire reports that IFC has signed with Criterion to distribute a special Criterion edition of Y tu mamá también, among other films, for 2010 release.  “Criterion has always presented a mix of international classics and director-approved editions of important contemporary films, so this new slate of releases fits our mission perfectly. These films are future classics, and we’re very excited about the opportunity to work with the filmmakers to present them in great editions right from the start,” said Criterion’s Peter Becker.    Read more.

Also, Women & Hollywood (from a feminist perspective) have pointed out a recent Newsweek article profiling female directors from Mexico.  Says Melissa Silverstein from Women & Hollywood, “It’s interesting to note that the movies by the women described in the piece are more gritty and realistic and about life in Mexico whereas most of the film made by the prominent Mexican men and more fantasy and action drive.”

I will be leaving this week for a gap year behind the Great Firewall of China, where unfortunately, wordpress is blocked.  This fanblog will therefore be on hold for a while, unless I find a reliable proxy, but even then my internet access will not be as consistent as at home in Canada while I travel.  I hope to continue reporting blogging when I can, and most definitely when I return.  Cheers.

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El Economista and El Mercurio report: In ten short films, ten Mexican filmmakers will be putting together a film in the style of Paris, je t’aime to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the Mexican Revolution.  Produced by IMCINE, Canana, and Mantarraya Producciones, each film will discuss the significance of the Revolution today.  “Imagine the potential for controversey,” said Gerardo Naranjo (Voy a explotar) who begins work on his contributiont next month, “I’m going to make something dynamic and violent that reflects what I think about the country.”  Other names attached include Spanish director Isabel Coixet, Alfonso Cuarón, the American Coen brothers, Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, Carlos Reygadas, Amat Escalante, and Fernando Eimbcke.

Monsters & Critics reports that Alfonso Cuarón, as well as John Woo, among others, has expressed interest in an 80 million USD Hollywood adaptation of Hong Kong fantasy graphic novel series DevaShard.  Subsidiary of NBC Universal, CastleBright Studios bought the rights to the fantasty series feeling that a storyline based on Asian mythology would be the next big thing.  DevaShard is inspired by the Sanscrit epic, the Mahabharata, an important part of Hindu mythology.

Noticine reveals that Cha Cha Cha production Mother and Child, directed by Rodrigo García, will make its world premiere with a gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, which runs from 10 to 19 September.  Budgeted at 7 million USD, it was filmed in Los Angeles and concerns three women played by Annette Benning, Naomi Watts, and Kerry Washington, whose character is looking to adopt.