Los Angeles, CA – The Guadalajara International Film Festival returned to Los Angeles for its sixth consecutive year. This time the opeining festivities took place in the historic TCL Chinese Theaters, right in the heart of Hollywood.
Writer/Director Rodrigo Garcia (R) and Alfonso Arau (Center) with Friends
Presented by the University of Guadalajara Foundation in USA and the Secretaría de Cultura (previously known as CONACULTA), the FICG opened October 7, 2016 with a red carpet gala where actors, directors and producers greeted fans and reporters as they walked down the red carpet and
“For decades, Latin American artists have looked for opportunities to showcase their work in the North American market, but in order to accomplish this, several forces had to come together, said University of Guadalajara Foundation USA President, Raúl Padilla López.
FICG-LA is an extension of the Guadalajara Film Festival, established and designed to screen the best of contemporary Latin American cinema in the city of Los Angeles.
“Our goal is that both hispanic and North American audiences can be able to explore the different narratives of Mexican and Ibero-American cinema and support films coming from these regions so they can reach wider audiences,” said Festival Director Iván Trujillo.
The festivities highlighted the work of both Mexican and US Latino talent such as director and producer Alfonso Arau (Water for Chocolate, A Walk in the Clouds), Mexican actress Diana Bracho (El Hotel de los Secretos, Cadenas de Amargura), Joaquin Cosio (The Thin Yellow Line, The Strain), Director Sergio Arau, actress Yareli Arizmendi (Like Water for Chocolate), Ariane Pellicer, actor Reynaldo Pachecho (Our Brand is Crisis), director Angel Manuel Soto (La Granja), actor JM Longoria (Miracles from Heaven), Carlos Yorvick (Hasta que te conocí) , Patrick Davis (Victor), among others who attended the opening night gala of the Festival in Los Angeles.
Patricia Riggen receives award
This year’s distinguished group of honorees included director Patricia Riggen (Under the Same Moon, Los 33, Miracles from Heaven), Mexican Oscar nominee in the category of sound mixing José Antonio García, journalist León Krauze and General Manager of La Opinion, Damián Mazzotta.
The Honorees received the Tree of Life Award, a special recognition for their outstanding career in the industry. Mexican Tree of Life is a sculptural piece of mud created by native artisans of Metepec, State of Mexico. It illustrates the Creation story from the Bible and was created by artisan Adalberto Osorio.
After receiving the award, Riggen told the audience what the festival represented to her when she was young. “Thanks to this Festival and Raul Padilla who created it, I had the opportunity to meet many filmmakers, wrote my first script and for the first time I could know a film studio”.
Riggen, one of the few women directors in Hollywood told Latin Heat that the participation of Latinos in the US entertainment industry is slowly increasing, “We all should definitely keep working hard to open more spaces for Latinos in this industry”.
The Friday opening gala film was La delgada linea amarilla ( The Thin Yellow Line) which received a huge ovation from the audience. It tells the story of five men who are hired to paint the line of a road in Mexico. Riding and old truck, they do the job. With more than 200 kilometers of pavement and yellow paint, they have to finish in less than 15 days. At the end of the road, they must acknowledge there is a thin line between right and wrong, between laughter and tears, between life and death.
La delgada línea amarilla cast includes actors Damián Alcázar, Joaquín Cosío, Silverio Palacios , Gustavo Sánchez Parra and Américo Hollander. The film was directed and written by Celso García (Pata de Gallo, The Thin Yellow Line, Cabeza de Huevo), and produced by Bertha Navarro and Alejandro Springall.
FICG-LA present the best of Mexican and Ibero-American cinema from the films screened at the Guadalajara International Film Festival several months ago. This year, more than 16 films were showcased during the film festival in addition to various book presentations, workshops and panels and discussions about the filming industry in Jalisco, Mexico. This years FIGG received more than 2000 projects and only 400 were screened, while out of those, 16 were selected to be showcased in Los Angeles.
Included among the selected films, short films and documentaries screened were: Paciente by director Jorge Caballero; Margarita by Bruno Santamaria, Mr Pig by Diego Luna, Mi amigo hindú by Hector Bebenco; La granja by Angel Soto, El charro de Toluquilla by José Villalobos and will close with the US premiere of Me estas matando Susana (You’re Killing me Susana) by director Robert Sneider.
The Guadalajara International Film Festival keeps expanding its content beyond its Mexican borders as in the case of Jeffrey Schwartz, an Emmy award- winning director and producer from New York. His film Tab Hunter Confidential screened in the Guadalajara several months ago where it was a big hit among audiences in Mexico. That in turn merited his inclusion in the Los Angeles line up.
Schwartz’s advice to aspiring filmmakers is that with the technology available today you can do you own films, “You can just pick up a camera and make movies on your own and you don’t need the studios to give you permission to do that”.
Also, in attendance to the opening night was Michelle Mueller who plays Madison in the new movie Halloweed alongside Danny Trejo. She expressed her admiration for Riggen and the festival, “I think that it is very important to host festivals like this to show that the latin community has a lot of powerful films and things to offer.”
The importance of this festival was summed by veteran Mexican actress Diana Bracho, who came to support the Guadalajara Film Festival because she believes it is crucial to enhance and promote Latin American Cinema.
Recently, the Mexican Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Science (AMACC in Spanish) criticized the budget cuts the Mexican government has made in the last 4 years to their film Mexican industry. “It’s disgraceful, terrible. It seems that our public servants in Mexico don’t have any idea of what culture and education means for the development of Mexico. These two elements are the basis for a more democratic country that can grow in different directions,” she commented. “We all know that Mexico is broken due to the systematic corruption and many other factors that affect its economy. We have to raise our voice to stop this. It’s unacceptable that a film school in Mexico has to be closed because there is no money or funds to support it, its a crime,” refuted Bracho. And with that the importance of the Guadalajara International Film Festival is more evident than ever.
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