Ellas Filman para el Siglo XXI / They Make Movies for the XXI Century

In the 1950s “studio cinema” in Latin America collapsed due to the studios closing or becoming obsolete in the three main countries that produced industrial cinema: Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In the 1960s the phenomenon of “independent films” emerged. The transformations in technology- lighter cameras, synchronized filming- allowed the creation of films with various subjects, granting a freedom that did not exist previously, when films were subject to large production companies. This novel cinema was produced in every country, and was given the name “new” everywhere: cinema novo, nuevo cine argentino, nuevo cine chileno, etc.

Fifty years later, a different phenomenon is occurring in Latin America. In this workshop we focus on Mexico as a case study for this new transformation in Latin American film: cinema written and directed by women, different from the previous cinema dominated by male directors.

This new cinema of the XXI century is concerned with different issues from those addressed in films from preceding decades, and is portrayed using styles that had never been employed before. It presents a singular, distinct, and unique outlook, that possibly originates from the social circumstances of the development of women in Latin American societies.

By focusing on one country within a precise timeframe (Mexico, 2000-2013), we will be able to study these new stylistic approaches and understand its cultural profile and its aesthetic characteristics.

For this workshop we are assembling, for three days, six Mexican film directors and screenwriters, one film critic and one acclaimed actress, with the purpose of having them watch each other’s films, analyze them, and comment them in round tables organized for this purpose. 
The workshop will pay tribute to Mexican actress, Cecilia Suárez.

GUESTS

ACTRESS

Cecilia Suárez,  NOS VEMOS, PAPÁ (2011) 
Born in Tampico, México, Cecilia Suárez started her acting career as a Theater student at Illinois State University in 1991. She graduated class valedictorian in 1995 and received the Jean Sharfenberg award. She was grantee of Chicago's Steppenwolf Theater Company, where she acted in "The Crucible" and "Everyman", directed by Frank Galati. The Mexican Association of Theater Critics named her ‘best actress’ for her role in "Popcorn". Her film debut was in 1999 with "Sexo, pudor y lágrimas" by Antonio Serrano. She then participated in Todo el poder, Fidel, Sin ton ni Sonia, Puños rosas, Solo Dios sabe, Chicken Little, Spanglish, Los tres entierros de Melquiades Estrada, The Air I Breathe, Parpados azules, El viaje de la Nonna and Cinco dias sin Nora. Suarez has been nominated for the Best Actress category of the 2008 Ariel Awards of the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences for her role in Parpados Azules.  In 2009 she was nominated for an International Emmy Award for her work on HBO’s series  Capadocia; Un lugar sin perdón (2008-10)

DIRECTORS

Natalia Almada: EL VELADOR (2011)
Award-winning director Natalia Almada (Al Otro Lado, POV 2006; El General, POV 2010) returns with a beautiful and mesmerizing new film. From dusk to dawn, El Velador (The Night Watchman) accompanies Martin, a guard who watches over the extravagant mausoleums of some of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords. In the labyrinth of the cemetery, this film about violence without violence reminds us that, amid the turmoil of a drug war that has claimed more than 50,000 lives, ordinary existence persists in Mexico and quietly defies the dead. Other films by Natalia Almada: EL GENERAL (2009, 83’)

Natalia Almada was born in Mexico, in 1974, to a Mexican father and an American mother, she now recides in Mexico City. It is this dual citizenship that best informs her work, that enables her to both transcend the mythical border between two nations and two cultures, and engage it with a deeper gaze-capturing the inherent dualities, nuances and grey areas, and developing her inquiries into the predominant socioeconomic issues that define Mexican-American relations with an abiding sense of poetry and music. Almada received her master's degree from Rhode Island School of Design. The three works she has produced in the past decade -All Water Has a Perfect Memory, Al Otro Lado and El General- demonstrate a singular vision, a resolve to take various sub-genres in documentary -the essay, the personal documentary, the social issue documentary and the history documentary- and make them her own. Natalia is a McArthur Fellow 2012.

Lucía Carreras: NOS VEMOS, PAPÁ (2011)
Pilar does not accept the death of her father. A middle-aged single woman, she lives with the illusion her father is present. Exploring the subtle psyche of an Electra relationship, debut writer-director Lucia Carreras again brings to the screen another fascinating person after her first script of Año bisiesto (Leap Year).

Lucía Carreras has a Master's Degree in screenwriting from the Intercontinental University and Hamlin University in the U.S. She received the Writers Support and the Project Development Award granted by the Mexican Film Institution for two of her different feature film scripts Nos vemos papá and Suerte de eternidad, which won in 2009 the Alejandro Galindo Award. She is co-writer of the film La cama directed by Rafael Montero and Año bisiesto directed by Michael Rowe. As a director she has made several short films such as Guadalajara y la noche, La puerta, Emilio and Jacinto Pata Sagrada. 

Jacaranda Correa: MORIR DE PIE (2011)
This is the inspiring story of Irina Layewska, a tireless fighter in the war for personal freedoms, who continues to work for progressive causes from her wheelchair despite a severe disability. But it’s also the love story of Irina and her partner Nelida, whom she married as a man. Irina was born into a male body; she grew up idolizing Che Guevara and spent much of her young life fighting for the Cuban solidarity movement. When her condition suddenly threatened her eyesight she became aware of an internal, emotional imbalance, and a need to explore her feminine side, and finally made the choice to become a woman. Jacaranda Correa, a Mexican journalist and anchorwoman, skillfully intercuts home movies and archival material with sensitive, intimate footage of Irina and Nelida’s present-day lives.

Jacaranda Correa studied Journalism and Social and Political Sciences at UNAM. She has a degree in Political Sociology from the Université de Sorbonne in Paris. She directed the feature documentary Morir de Pie (First Prize, Guadalajara 2011); She directed an experimental documentary film Beckett desde la nada (2005), two television documentaries, Así pasó (2011) and Había una vez (2010), and produced four TV documentaries. She currently coordinates a space for documentary broadcasting on CANAL 22, Visión Periférica. She has coordinated and directed three journalistic research programs for CANAL 22: Ventana de medianoche (2005-2006), Espacio alterno (2006-2007), and El rotativo (2007-2010). 

Diana Garay: MI AMIGA BETY (2012)
Bety, my childhood friend, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for her mother's murder. She and I went to the same school, shared friends and set off in similar paths. And yet, I am here and she is there. This documentary is about understanding the circumstances that deprived Bety of her freedom.

Diana Garay holds degrees from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica. Her film, Itchy Feet, has been screened at numerous festivals in Mexico, Brazil, Spain, and France. MI AMIGA BETY is her first feature length documentary.

Andrea Martínez Crowther: CICLO (2013)
In 1956 brothers Arturo and Gustavo Martinez made a bicycle trip from Mexico City to Toronto, in Canada. They were the first to accomplish this feat, and it changed their lives forever. 53 years later these two men, now 75 and 78, drive along the exact same route followed by a small film crew. The objective is simple: to see what has changed, both in the landscape and inside themselves. CICLO is an exploration of memory, the heart, and the unavoidable passage of time. Other films by Andrea Martínez Crowther: COSAS INSIGNIFICANTES (2008, 98’)

Of Mexican-Canadian origin, Andrea was born in 1968.  In 1997 she received a Fulbright scholarship to study film at the University of Southern California, where she wrote and directed her first short film, Durango Bride. Cosas Insignificantes is her first feature film project. In 2001 it was selected to participate in the Sundance Screenwriters Lab and in 2002 it was awarded First Place by the SOGEM (Mexican Writers Guild) in the First Screenwriting competition "Expresión en Corto."

Claudia Sainte Luce, LOS INSÓLITOS PECES GATO (The Amazing Catfish) (2013)

Claudia, a lonely young woman, works in a supermarket. One night, she ends up in the hospital with a severe case of appendicitis. There, she meets Martha, the woman resting in the bed next to hers. Martha, who lives alone with her four children, gains Claudia's trust. When she gets out of the hospital, she spontaneously offers Claudia to go home with them. Getting to know this family makes Claudia feel at ease. And for the first time she experiences a sense of belonging in this peculiar little tribe. As Martha's health weakens every day the bond Claudia has with each member of the family grows stronger.

Claudia Santa-Luce was born in Veracruz (Mexico) in December 1982. In 2004, she graduated from the University of Guadalajara with a degree in Visual Arts.
In 2005, she participated in the Festival Expresion en Corto in Guanajuato. The challenge was to make a short film in only 24 hours. She directed a film called Muerte Anunciada, which received the Audience Award, the Award for Best Actor and a Jury Mention. In 2010 she won the competition organized by IMCINE (Mexican Institute of Cinematography), with her project The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gato). In March 2011 she won, with the script for The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gato), the 17th Laboratory of scriptwriting funded by Bertha Navarro, the Sundance Lab and Toscano Foundation. In December 2012, she was awarded the Primer Corte Prize at Ventana Sur (Buenos Aires) for The Amazing Catfish. The Amazing Catfish (Los Insolitos Peces Gato) was selected in the competitive section Cineasti  at the Locarno Film Festival 2013 and at the Toronto Film Festival 2013 in the Discovery section.

FILM CRITIC

Fernanda Solorzano
Film critic, essayist and editor, Solorzano received her undergraduate degree in Latin American Literature by the Universidad Iberoamericana. From 1995 to 1999 she was deputy editor of the journal Viceversa; from 2002 to 2002 she was Chief of Information for the seminar “Día Siete” of the El Universal newspaper, and from 2002 to 2005 she was co-editor of the magazine Letras Libres.

From 1996 to 2001 she was the main film critic for the “Saturday” supplement of the newspaper Unomásuno, of Cambio magazine, and of the supplement “Confabulario” of the El Universal newspaper. She has collaborated in the magazines Dicine, Viceversa, Saber ver, Paréntesis, Etcétera, El polemista, and La Tempestad, in the supplement “El Ángel” of the Reforma newspaper, in “La Jornada Semanal” of La Jornada, and in Milenio’s “Laberinto”. In 2005 she was awarded the scholarship “Creative Youth” of the National Council for Arts and Culture in Mexico, in the essay category. In radio, she has collaborated in the radio shows “The Ticket” and “On Screen” of the BBC, and on television she has conducted the shows “Filmoteca 40”, “Confabulario” and “El Foco” for Proyecto 40, and “Encuadre” and “Entrelíneas” for Canal 22. In 2007 she was member of the jury of the Short Shorts Film Festival México and of the International Film Festival of Morelia (in the short films section); in 2008 she was member of the jury of the International Film Festival of Monterrey (documentary and feature film sections); in 2009 she was member of the International Critic Jury of the Lima Film Festival, and in 2010 she was member of the jury for the Gucci-Ambulatory Scholarship for documentary projects. She is currently responsible for the cinema section in the show “Atando Cabos” (Radio Fórmula) and is the main film critic for the magazine Letras Libres. She collaborates sporadically in the British magazine Sight & Sound and the Spanish edition of Cahiers du Cinéma.

Student Coordinator, Mariana de Heredia