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 Entertainment | January 2007 
Mexico's Sweet Film Success Inspires Sundance
 Mary Milliken - Reuters
| | Actress Adriana Barraza of Mexico poses outside her Florida home in Doral, Florida January 23, 2007. Barraza has been nominated for an Oscar for Best performance by an actress in a supporting role for her work in the movie 'Babel.' (Hans Deryk/Reuters) |
Even before they heard their countrymen had garnered a dozen or so Academy Award nominations on Tuesday, the Mexican contingent at this year's Sundance Film Festival was brimming with confidence.
Together "Babel" and "Pan's Labyrinth," by Mexican directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu and Guillermo del Toro, won 13 Oscar nominations - giving the Mexican film industry its biggest boost to date on the other side of the border.
"In another period, you had the Italian directors all over and then the French directors, and I think it is now the Mexican directors," said Mexican filmmaker Patricia Riggen, 36, after her premiere at Sundance, the leading U.S. festival for independent film.
"It is just going to grow. The audiences and studios are realizing there is talent and good stories and everybody likes them."
Riggen's "La Misma Luna" (The Same Moon) received a rare standing ovation at Sundance. The film about a mother and child separated by the U.S.-Mexico border is not in competition, but is expected to walk away with a big distribution deal.
Riggen lives in Los Angeles, but other Mexicans at Sundance believe staying in Mexico City is a key to their distinctive work.
"Human nature in Mexico City is stronger and more raw and I think that is reproduced in Mexican cinema," said Guillermo Arriaga, the Oscar nominated screenwriter of "Babel" and producer of "El Bufalo de la Noche" (The Night Buffalo) in competition at Sundance.
Arriaga, who also wrote "Amores Perros" and "21 Grams," said that environment spurs him to create films with "guts and balls" - the qualities he most desires in his work.
"Buffalo" is a tough film to watch as tormented young lovers destroy their lives and those around them. It is based on Arriaga's novel of the same name, drawn from his years as a university professor, and stars the popular Mexican actor Diego Luna working with a cast of unknowns.
LONG-AWAITED ATTENTION
The Mexican directors and writers have built a tight-knit film community that is prone to take risks and bet on raw talent.
Four years ago, Arriaga brought Venezuelan-born Jorge Hernandez Aldana to Mexico to co-write and direct "Buffalo," his first long feature film, after seeing a short feature he had done at a festival.
"As the Mexicans gave me so much support when I arrived, I feel the need to fight for Mexican filmmaking," said Hernandez Aldana, 37, who is now a naturalized Mexican citizen.
He believes the plethora of Oscar nominations for Mexico is not a sudden phenomenon, but rather the result of several years of excellent productions that did not get much exposure in the United States.
Gonzalez Inarritu's "Amores Perros" in 2000 and Alfonso Cuaron's "Y Tu Mama Tambien" in 2001 got the ball rolling.
"What we needed was more attention from the world, and that is what we are getting now," Hernandez Aldana said.
But not only directors and writers were celebrating the rise of Mexico at Sundance.
Mexican actors played major roles in two U.S. feature films in competition, "Padre Nuestro" (Our Father) about the dog-eat-dog life of immigrants in New York City and "Trade," a look at the trafficking of children as sex slaves from Mexico to the United States.
"Doors are opening for the major talent of Latin America to cross over to the United States," said Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez who plays acclaimed supporting roles in "La Misma Luna" and "Padre Nuestro."
"I think it will be a great year for Mexico." |
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