London MexFest this weekend

The British Council, the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts (Conaculta), and the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE), the Morelia International Film Festival, Ambulante, and Canana Films present London MexFest, with the support of the Mexican Tourism Board and the Mexican Embassy in the United Kingdom. Lucky Londoners in town Friday through Sunday can visit Mexico’s cultural presence at the London 2012 Summer Games.  The opening night premiere of the documentary Made in Mexico (Duncan Bridgeman) is sold out, but you can still check out dozens of film screenings, free music, industry panels, and photographic exhibitions.

Click here for the  full program.  You can also see the screening schedule below the cut.

Mexicans who shone in 2011

Excelsior has listed Alfonso Cuarón and Guillermo del Toro, for their work on two of 2012’s most highly anticipated movies Gravity and Pacific Rim, as two of the Mexican stars who shone brightest in 2011, alongside actress Salma Hayek, director Gerardo Naranjo, and actors conquering new territory, Demian Bichir, Kuno Becker, Martha Higareda, and Paulina Gaitán.  Charolastras Gael García Berna and Diego Luna were also lauded for their Canana Films productions this year as well as their acting.  Read more.

A few notes before going on hiatus

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.

Ambulante 2009

Excelsior reports: Journalists, critics, film students, and even government officials packed the hall for a press conference calling up the 4th annual edition of Ambulante, a multi-sited documentary festival which opens 6 February and runs through 9 April.

“When reality surpasses fiction, it’s time to turn to documentary,” said screenwriter and IMCINE director Marina Stavenhagen.   Actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna also pointed to the didactic capacity of documentary film, “to put your finger on the reality and from that create a better environment and a better future.”  OEM was also at the press conference, and related the two actors’ insistence upon investment in such initiatives even in the worldwide economic crisis, “When we are in crisis, we realize the power we have that is in our hands is the power to do something better.”

Established by Canana producers Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna, and Pablo Cruz in 2005, the Ambulante is designed to cover as much of Mexico as possible, both geographically and socially, and will screen Mexican and international films in not only cinemas, but also public squares and prisons.  The festival’s official webiste can be viewed in both Spanish and English.

Success at Venice

Success at Venice for Gerardo Naranjo, whose Voy a explotar won him a standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival last Monday night, as well as personal congratulations from Guillermo Arriaga and producers Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna (Canana Films). Next, the director of Drama/Mex (2006) will go to the Toronto International Film Festival (showing tomorrow: Sunday, 7 September; and again: Tuesday, 9 September) and the New York Film Festival (showing 28 and 29 September). Read more.

Ramon, the son of a sleazy right-wing congressman, contributes to his new high school’s talent show by ineptly attempting to hang himself on stage. Maru is the only one who claps. They bond in detention, and then it’s off in a stolen Volkswagen with daddy’s gun to the end of the night… or something like that.

Also at Venice, Carlos Armella‘s short film Tierra y pan has been awarded the Golden Lion. Read more. Also in competition at these end-of-summer festivals in Guillermo Arriaga‘s The Burning Plain. And the Coen brothers’ Burn after Reading is out, with film work by Emmanuel Lubezki.  I’m looking forward to it.

Cuarón to take part in Ischia Social Cinema Forum

Alfonso Cuarón is currently taking part in the Ischia Global Film & Music Fest in Italy. Along with directors Bille August and Carlo Gabriel Nero, and actors Vanessa Redgrave, Terrence Howard, Michele Placido, and Trudy Styler, he is participating in the festival’s Social Cinema Forum, “dedicated to Human Rights. The event, promoted together with the United Nations through UNRIC, the Equal Rights Ministry, and UNICEF and sponsored by Save the Children, is presided over by the screenwriter – director Steven Zaillian, Oscar winner for the film “Schindler’s List”.” The 6th edition of this film festival began on the 13th and continues through 20th July 2008. Read more.

Meanwhile, more news about Rudo y Cursi: “It was Guillermo del Toro, who first gave Carlos the idea of directing in 1996 after Carlos complained that his scripts were not produced. “Well, you direct, dimwit,” he told Cuarón. For his part, Alejandro González Iñárritu gave him his first managerial job even before Charles made his first short in 1997.” [1] Argentine Guillermo Francella also stars, as Batuta the football promoter. Art direction by Eugenio Caballero. [2] The film is a co-production by Cha Cha Cha, Canana Films, Esperanto Films, Focus Features, Producciones Anhelo, and Universal. [3]

“The film is about brotherhood put to the test, rivalry for the love of a woman and a mother, of success in the face of social climbing, of the fragility beneath the surface. One who wagers for passion and one for talent.”* [4]

*Re: translation – I can’t actually read Spanish.

Not really a “new wave,” says producer, as Déficit premieres

“Nobody here talks to each other,” laughs producer Pablo Cruz, speaking to Scott Macaulay from FilmInFocus about the scope of his work. Realising the success of the “three amigos” (del Toro, Cuarón, and González Iñárritu), Cruz and actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal founded the company Canana Films, which has already produced a documentary about the Mexican boxer J.C. Chavez (Luna) and Drama/Mex (Gerardo Naranjo) which premiered at Cannes, among others, including two more currently in post-production. Click here to read more about the difficulties and rewards of making Mexican film in Mexico.

Gael García Bernal’s directorial debut Déficit (also produced by Canana) opened to Mexican cinemas from Granada last weekend after screenings at several international film festivals last year (including Toronto and Cannes). With a critique of class struggle as it exists in Mexico, Déficit, also starring the first-time director, tells the story of two wealthy brothers organising a party in which both poor workers and rich friends are in attendance.

On his first time behind the camera, he told Rocío García of El País:

The Russians said that making movies is sculpting time. To the directors this is obvious, but for me, it was a discovery. Read more.