LOCAL SCENE
Cinema creating links, not borders
By Phil Villarreal
pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 03.27.2008
Mexico's burgeoning film industry is the focus of a two-day conference that starts today in Tucson.
"Very few people know Mexican cinema is really thriving, and it goes beyond household names," said Carlos A. Gutiérrez, who will lecture on the industry on Friday. "Last year 57 feature films were made in Mexico. That's a pretty good overall number. And 17 or 18 were from first-time filmmakers. We're really seeing a new generation of talented filmmakers emerging."
The U.S.-Mexico Border States Conference: Filmmaking, Economic Development and Intellectual Property Rights is an expansion of the Cine Mexico Film Festival, which has showcased Mexican film for the past three years.
The conference takes place today and Friday at the University of Arizona and the Fox Tucson Theatre among other locations.
It's sponsored in part by the Motion Picture Association of America and the UA Hanson Film Institute.
Gutiérrez, 35, is the co-director of Cinema Tropical, which distributes Latin American films in the United States. The Mexico City native lives in New York and has served on selection committees and juries at several film festivals, including the New York Gay and Lesbian Festival and the Asian American International Film Festival.
We caught up with Gutiérrez over the phone.
What do you hope this conference accomplishes?
"It has a double mission. One of them is to have professionals come to the conference and create more ties between Mexican and American production sites. The second is for the general public, so they can learn more about Mexican cinema."
Why aren't more Mexican movies screened in the U.S.?
"It's kind of complicated. Any film that's subtitled runs in the arthouse circuit, which as such is a drying structure. It's a 30-year-old structure and unfortunately there are no new channels to promote all the great work in other parts of the world."
Is Tucson significant in the bridge between filmmaking in the two countries?
"Totally. And not just geographically and historically, thanks to the work the Hanson Institute is doing, bringing in the local community with film professionals."
How can people here see Mexican films?
"A lot of films are available on DVD and Netflix. The production value really varies. Another problem is film criticism. There are too few resources for viewers to go about finding good films."
What needs to happen for more Mexican films to make headway in the U.S.?
"I guess it involves trying to get really different audiences to appreciate films that would be sort of ideal. Because of niche marketing, some believe you have to be Latino in order to enjoy a Spanish-language film, which of course is not the case. People want to transcend their own context and learn about other cultures, other psyches."
If you're involved in filmmaking and would like to be featured in a Q&A, write to pvillarreal@azstarnet.com.
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