CELEBRATING the New Wave of Mexican Cinema

Mexico at the Smithsonian
CELEBRATING the New Wave of Mexican Cinema
Washington, DC
Film Festival
November 30 – December 2, 2007
SCHEDULE O F E V E N TS
All programs are free and will include a discussion following the film with the guest speakers and preceded by a short film.
Friday, November 30
J
oin leading stars and emerging talents of Mexican film for a
3-day celebration honoring the new wave of Mexican cinema! Five world-class directors will present 5 films that capture the
spirit and creative brilliance emerging in Mexican cinema today. In addition, five award-winning Mexican short films will also
be featured during the festival. Engage and meet with some of
Mexico’s premier talents in discussions and Q&As following
each showing! Enrich your awareness of outstanding films and
celebrate the new wave of Mexican cinema!
ALL EVENTS are FREe, include discussions & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Locations:
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History • Mexican
Cultural Institute • Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
11am
Press conference (Open to the press and public)
Location: Mexican Cultural Institute
7 pm
Chavez directed by Diego Luna, (2007, 80 mins) followed by a discussion with the award winning director.
Also presenting, Sirenas de Fondo directed by: Arcadi Palerm (2006, 10 mins)
Location: Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
Saturday, December 1
3 pm
Cochochi directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas (2007, 87 mins), followed by a discussion
with the award winning producer, Pablo Cruz
Also presenting, The Miracle (El Milagro) directed by Ernesto Contreras (2000, 15 mins)
Location: Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
6:30 pm
Blood (Sangre) directed by Amat Escalante (2005, 90 mins), followed by a discussion with the director.
Also presenting, Milk and Water (La Leche y el Agua) directed by: Celso R. García (2006, 12 mins)
Location: Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
Sunday, December 2
1 pm
Duck Season (Temporada de Patos) directed by Fernando Eimbcke, (2004, 90 mins), followed by a
discussion with the director.
Also presenting, Ambulance Music (Música de Ambulancia) directed by: Paula Markovitch (2006, 13 mins)
Location: Location: Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History
4 pm
The Violin (El Violin) directed by Francisco Vargas (2005, 98 mins) followed by a discussion with awardwinning actress, Adriana Barraza.
Also presenting, A Mother’s Love (Amor de Madre) directed by Luis Urquiza (2006, 10 mins)
Location: Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History
For more information, please visit our website at www.latino.si.edu or www.instituteofmexicodc.org or call us at (202) 728-1675.
MEXICO
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About the Guest Directors & Actors
Guanajuato, Berlin, and Sao Paolo festivals. In 2002, Eimbcke debuted No Sea Malito, a
short film about corruption, at Sao Paolo. In 2003, Eimbcke submitted The Look of Love
to the Berlinale’s first Talent Campus and in the following year, he wrote a script for the
Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, which led to the creation of Temporada de Patos,
(Duck Season). In addition, Eimbcke has earned recognition and awards for his work with
rock artists on their music videos.
Adriana Barraza (actress, director)
Mistress of Ceremony for the program
Presenting The Violin (El Violin), Sunday,
December 2nd, 4 pm, Baird Auditorium,
National Museum of Natural History
Nominated for an Academy Award, a
Golden Globe and other prestigious honors
for her role in Babel, Ms. Barraza is also
widely recognized for her performance in
Amores Perros. She starred alongside Gael
García Bernal in both films. Born in Toluca
in Central Mexico, she studied acting at the
local fine arts school while working and
raising her daughter. Since moving to Mexico
City in 1985, Barraza has worked as a theater
director and guest starred and directed many
Mexican television shows including: Mujer,
Casos de la Vida Real Bajo un Mismo Rostro
playing Elvira; La Paloma starring as Madre
Clara; and Imperio de Cristal playing Flora.
In 1997, she played the role of Nurse Clara
Domínguez in Alguna Vez Tendremos Alas.
Barraza directed Locura de Amor (in which she also starred), Nunca Te Olvidare and El
Manantial. She is a professional acting coach and has worked with actors for several movie
and television shows, including the American film, Spanglish.
Amat Escalante (director)
Presenting Blood (Sangre), Saturday, December 1st, 6:30 pm, Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
Co produced by Carlos Reygadas (Japon, Battle for
Heaven) and winner of the 2005 Cannes Film Festival’s Official
Selection International Critics’ Prize for Sangre, Amat Escalante
is a self-taught filmmaker who has earned numerous distinctions
throughout his career. Hailing from Guanajuato, Mexico, Escalante
devoted himself to cinema at the age of 15. After completing two
short films, Escalante wrote and directed his first feature, Sangre,
which is shot in his native Guanajuato. Prior to that, he worked
as an assistant to Carlos Reygadas on Battle for Heaven. Today,
Escalante is considered one of the new leading talents in Mexican film.
Diego Luna (director, actor, producer)
Presenting Chávez, Friday, November 30th, 7 pm, Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
Premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival, Chávez marks Luna’s directorial debut.
Canana Films, the production company he formed with lifelong friend Gael García Bernal and
Pablo Cruz, produced Chávez. Following Luna’s 2001 breakout success as Tenoch Iturbide
in the critically acclaimed Y Tu Mamá También, he is currently making name for himself
in the U.S. film industry, with starring
roles alongside Bon Jovi in Vampires:
Los Muertos (2002) and in the Academy
Award-winning film, Frida (2002). Prior
to these roles, Luna appeared in director
Julian Schnabel’s critically acclaimed
drama, Before Night Falls (2000). Other
roles include: Open Range; the prequel
to Dirty Dancing, entitled Dirty Dancing:
Havana Nights; The Terminal with Tom
Hanks; and Criminal with John C. Reilly.
Born Diego Luna Alexander in Mexico
City, Luna is the son of Fiona Alexander,
a British-born costume designer, and
Alejandro Luna, a set designer who is
one of the most acclaimed living theatre,
cinema and opera set designers in
Mexico. Luna began acting in television,
film and theater at an early age, following
the death of his mother when he was only
two years old. His first television role
was in El Último Fin de Año (1991). His
next role in television’s El Abuelo y Yo
(1992) was alongside his childhood best
friend and future Canana Films partner,
Gael García Bernal.
Pablo Cruz (producer)
Presenting Cochochi, Saturday, December 1, 3 pm, Nan Tucker
McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery
Known as the business brain behind Canana Films,
the shingle he founded with Mexican actors Gael Garcia Bernal
and Diego Luna in 2003, Cruz works to develop socially minded
projects that can’t find a home elsewhere. His latest film, Cochochi,
is produced by Canana and directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and
Israel Cardenas. Pushing the bleeding edge of Mexico’s new wave of realism, Cruz’s
films are meant to reflect the realities found in today’s Mexico and to effectuate change.
Cruz started out as a cameraman after studying film theory at the London College of
Printing. He ended up producing films in Africa and later founded the Lift, a successful
TV advertising company in Spain. Cruz also cut a first-look deal for Canana with Focus
Features – a landmark arrangement between a U.S. studio and a Mexican shingle.
Fernando Eimbcke (writer, director)
Presenting Duck Season (Temporada de Patos), Sunday, December 2nd, 1 pm, Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History
Fernando Eimbcke studied film at Centro Universitario de Estudios
Cinematográficos (UNAM), where he wrote and directed several notable shorts including No
Todo es Permanente, nominated as best documentary
short by the Mexican Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences in 1996. Following his participation in
a scriptwriting workshop, Eimbcke won a contest in
2001 to produce the short La Suerte de la Fea a la
Bonita no le Importa, which appeared in a number
of national and international festivals including
Celebrating
the
New
Wave
of
Mexican
Cinema
About the Films
Blood (Sangre)
Directed by Amat Escalante (2005, 90 mins)
(Saturday, December 1st, 6:30 pm, Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery)
Co-produced by Carlos Reygadas, the
author of Battle in Heaven, winner at the
Cannes Film festival, Un Certain Regard, American Film Institute, Mexican Ariel’s, this
first feature dealt with in a harsh tone everyday life of a couple of Mexicans. The film is
incisive and corrosive to show the life of a warder of a public office and a woman who
works as a waitress at a fast food restaurant. Sangre gets in the most intimate spaces of the
couple to undress the effects of the passage of time, anxiety, boredom, and the mechanics
with which it operates affection, violence, attachment, and a whole range of human
contradictory feelings about love, life and death. This is a somewhat wild film, but also
very contained, where its director quite naturally strikes against certain conventions widely
in the representation of conventional film.
Chávez
Directed by Diego Luna (2007, 80 Mins )
(Friday, November 30th, 7 pm, Nan Tucker
McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery)
After more than 20 films, Luna (Y Tu
Mamá También, Frida) steps behind the camera
as director of Chávez, a documentary about the
life of the legendary boxer who won five world
titles. “He’s Mexico’s biggest star of all time,”
says actor Diego Luna. “In his years of glory, the
only good news we had on TV in my country
was related to him. Chávez was world champion
for more than 10 years during crazy times…the
assassination of presidential candidate Luis
Donaldo Colosio, the insurgent movement in Chiapas.” Chávez premiered at the Tribeca
Film Festival and has played at festivals around the world.
Cochochi
Directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán’s and Israel
Cárdenas (2007, 87 mins) (Saturday, December 1st,
3pm, Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National
Portrait Gallery)
This debut wonder is the simple story of a
journey by Evaristo and Tony, indigenous brothers
living in Okochoci, a small community located
in Mexico’s rural northwest. Splendidly shot on
16mm and wonderfully acted by non-professionals
(especially the two leads), Cochochi features breathtaking images of a region of Mexico
little explored on film-not to mention a language that’s just as distinctive (the Tarahumaran
dialect of Ráramuri). Though fabulistic and, at times, quite amusing, in tone, Cárdenas and
Guzmán use their delicate narrative to explore a serious issue in the lives of any indigenous
population-the question of whether to integrate with society at large by learning a new
language and moving away from home, or holding onto traditional ways. By Cochochi’s
end, important choices will have been made, and three sets of eyes will have been openedEvaristo’s, Tony’s, and the viewers’.
Duck Season (Temporada de Patos)
Directed by Fernando Eimbcke (2004, 90 mins)
(Sunday, December 2nd, 1 pm, Baird Auditorium,
National Museum of Natural History)
With Temporada de Patos, writer/director
Fernando Eimbcke lovingly brings a touching tale to life.
Produced by Alfonso Cuarón Shot in black-and-white and
on a minuscule budget, Eimbcke’s film is a slice-of-life
comedy that takes place over the course of one day in a
Mexico City apartment. Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Catano) are two bored teenagers
who plan a day of unsupervised fun together in Flama’s mother’s humble abode. Videogames, CocaCola, and pizza are high on their list of priorities, but things don’t quite go according to plan. First,
a slightly older female neighbor, Rita (Danny Perea), arrives to bake a cake in the kitchen. Then the
pizza man arrives and the boys challenge him to a soccer videogame as payment for the food. But
when the power in the building cuts out mid-game the fun really starts as the foursome argue, clown
around, and do anything they can to stave off the boredom that threatens to engulf them. Temporada
de Patos conjures up a world all of its own, and is a welcome introduction to the cinematic mind of
Fernando Eimbcke. The film won 7 Mayahueles in the Muestra de Cine Mexicano de Guadalajara
as well as the FIPRESCI prize and was selected to participate in the 43é. Semaine de la Critique in
Cannes (2004). Winner of 11 Ariel Awards in 2005, the film was included in more than 70 festivals
and has been sold to more than 30 countries.
The Violin (El Violin)
Directed by Francisco Vargas (2005, 98 mins)
Presented by Adriana Barraza. (Sunday, December
2nd, 4 pm, Baird Auditorium, National Museum of
Natural History)
An old Indian grandfather, Don Plutarco, plays violin and his son plays guitar, while his
grandson collects pennies in a poor, rural Mexican town. This peasant family soon faces a life and
death situation, and Don Plutarco generates a risky idea to help his son, using the gifts he has to offer:
his courage, his dignity, and, his violin. The movie reveals how this family and the community live
together, and it offers a poignant glimpse of how mainstream Mexican society works with its Indian
neighbors in times of great need. The violinists’ passion inspires and makes this film a universal and
moving story.
Mexican Shorts (Five award-winning shorts)
Ambulance Music (Música de Ambulancia) directed by Paula Markovitch (2006, 13
mins). Lucia, who is in her fifties, has cancer. Cecilia, her daughter, takes care
of her. Illness distances them, but all of a sudden, a male nurse visits and they
experience an absurd and surprisingly happy moment. (Sunday, December 2, 1pm)
The Background Sirens (Sirenas de Fondo) directed by Arcadi Palerm (2006, 10
mins). Will the background sirens ever stop? (Friday, November 30, 7pm)
Milk and Water (La Leche y el Agua) directed by Celso R. García (2006, 12 mins).
A woman tries to get back her only companion in life – a cow. (Saturday, December
1, 6:30pm)
The Miracle (El Milagro) directed by Ernesto Contreras (2000, 15 mins). The
inhabitants of a small town witness a miracle that itself will not be repeated in a
thousand years. Margarita wants to attend, but her husband believes it is all a farce.
(Saturday, December 1, 3pm)
A Mother’s Love (Amor de Madre) directed by Luis Urquiza (2006, 10 mins). Sofia is
about to marry in Paris. She has come back to Mexico to say goodbye to her exboyfriend who is in a coma. Her ex-mother-in-law will do anything in her power to
make Sofia stay at the side of her beloved son. (Sunday, December 2, 2pm)
For more information, please visit our website at www.latino.si.edu or www.instituteofmexicodc.org or call us at (202) 728-1675.
MEXICO
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CELEBRATING the New Wave of Mexican Cinema
Dear Friends of Mexican Cinema,
t is an honor for me to welcome you to this celebration of artistic achievement in
cinema. This festival, a partnership between the Smithsonian Latino Centre and the
Mexican Cultural Institute, recognizes the creative contributions that Mexican artists
make to U.S. culture through film. Mexico at the Smithsonian – Celebrating the New
Wave of Mexican Cinema offers a wonderful opportunity for Mexico to display its
budding and cutting-edge national talent and celebrate new concepts through one
of the most powerful mediums in world history – film. I hope you can join me and
many of the today’s top talent in honoring the most recent Mexican films over the
course of this weekend. I would like to also take this opportunity to thank all the
organizers and supporters whose efforts have made this fine festival a reality for all
of us to enjoy. I am proud to be a part of this festival and through it celebrate the
heritage and artistic achievement of Mexican filmmakers.
Sincerely,
T
I
he Smithsonian Latino Center is proud to be collaborating with the Mexican
Cultural Institute in presenting Celebrating the New Wave of Mexican Cinema,
part of the “Mexico at the Smithsonian” public program series. Mexican cinema
is currently experiencing a second Golden Age—its impact is being felt all over
the world, including the United States where directors such as Guillermo del Toro,
Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu have won Oscar nominations for
their poignant work. These cinematic talents have inspired a new generation of
Mexican filmmakers whose work is highlighted in this series of contemporary film
screenings. With the participation of acclaimed actors Adriana Barraza, Diego Luna
and the Mexico’s newest and most talented young directors, Celebrating the New
Wave of Mexican Cinema is sure to intrigue and inspire.
We look forward to seeing you at the movies!
Pilar F. O’Leary
Director, Smithsonian Latino Center
Arturo Sarukhan
Ambassador of Mexico
Informatio n , T i c k e t s , V e n u e s & D i r e c t i o n s
Tickets
Venues
O r g anizers
All events are free and open to the public. Admission is available on a first-come, first-serve
basis. To guarantee admission, you MUST be present at the venue 30 minutes prior to the
scheduled start time. Tickets are available in advance at the venues 1 hour prior to the start
of each event. For groups 10 or more, please email: [email protected] or
call (202) 728- 1675.
Baird Auditorium, National Museum of Natural History: The museum is located at the
intersection of 10th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW, in Washington, DC, 20560. The
main phone number is (202) 633-1000.
Directions: Smithsonian Station (Mall exit) on the Blue and Orange line.
Mexican Cultural Institute is located at: 2829 16th Street, NW 20009 near the intersection
of Columbia Road. To leave a message and for groups of 10 or more, please call:
202 728 1675.
Directions: Columbia Heights Station (Green Line)
Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium, National Portrait Gallery is located at 750 9th Street,
NW, Washington, DC. The main phone number is (202) 633-1000.
Directions: The gallery is conveniently located at Eighth and F Streets, NW, DC, 20001,
above the Gallery Place-Chinatown Metrorail station (Red, Yellow and Green lines).
Transportation: Try to use Public Transportation: The use of public transportation, including taxis, in
Washington is recommended as on-street parking is extremely limited and traffic is often
heavy.
Parking
There are few public parking facilities. On-street parking is limited and posted times are
enforced. There are commercial parking lots and garages located within several blocks of the
museums. There is also a limited number of parking spaces for vehicles with the appropriate
license plate or permits for visitors with disabilities.
Embassy of Mexico and Mexican Cultural Institute
Arturo Sarukhan – Ambassador, Julian Ventura – Deputy
Chief of Mission; Juan García de Oteyza – Cultural
Attaché/Executive Director of MCI, Claudia Keller Lapayre
– Deputy Director; Humberto Martinez – Arts programs;
Alfonso Cacho – Administrator; Clarissa Minchew, Angel
Lopez, Nazario Mendoza.
Marina Stavenhagen Vargas, IMCINE
Leonardo Garcia Tsao, Cinéteca
Smithsonian Latino Center
Pilar O´Leary - Director, Smithsonian Latino Center;
Noralisa Leo - External Affairs Officer/Deputy Director,
Smithsonian Latino Center; Ranald Woodaman, Exhibitions
and Public Programs Director, Smithsonian Latino Center;
Emily Key - Education Manager, Smithsonian Latino Center;
Allison Jessing - Auditorium Program Coordinator, National
Portrait Gallery; Tina Karl, Assistant Director for Special
Events, National Museum of Natural History
Festival Organizer:
Carol Bidault de l’Isle
Special Thanks To:
Diana Backlund; Barbara Burnett, Burnett’s Travel;
Katie Dahl, International Arts & Artists’ Design Studio;
Leslie Keating, Leslie Keating Marketing LLC; Carlos
Silva