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 Entertainment | March 2007 
Mexican Filmmaking Gains Acclaim in Hollywood
 Laurence Iliff - Dallas Morning News
| | Director Guillermo del Toro (R) of the Oscar-nominated best foreign language film 'Pan's Labyrinth', from Mexico, posed for photographers outside the Kodak Theatre with cast members. (AFP/Robyn Beck) |
And the winner is ... Mexico.
Even before the first statue was presented at Sunday night's Academy Awards, Mexicans had a lump of pride in their throats as three movies directed by their countrymen enjoyed a record 16 nominations, including seven for best-picture nominee "Babel." The three amigos, as the directors have been dubbed, are hotter than habaneros from the Yucatan peninsula.
Guillermo del Toro ("Pan's Labyrinth"), Alfonso Cuaron ("Children of Men") and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu ("Babel") are part of a new wave of Mexican auteurs who have crossed the border and triumphed in Hollywood.
And that sudden interest in all things Mexico isn't limited to the Mexican-directed films sizzling their way alongside tamer American fare. It also includes Mexico-themed movies such as Mel Gibson's Mayan epic "Apocalypto" and the rise of youthful stars including Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna. Eleven other Mexicans were nominated for an Oscar in categories from music to makeup.
"I'm very excited for these directors who have managed to navigate the Hollywood system," said J. Frank Hernandez, executive director of Dallas' Vistas Film Festival. The directors, along with Luna, Garcia Bernal and a host of Mexicans writers and technicians, "have done a good job of creating a cottage industry for themselves by supporting each other."
But like immigrant groups before them who have transformed the American landscape, the exodus of cinema artists to the United States and elsewhere has hurt a Mexican film industry already struggling with limited government funding and the growing dominance of Hollywood fare, some artists here say.
Cuaron, jokingly, has called himself and his colleagues "braceros de lujo," or high-priced foreign laborers. And like the millions of immigrants before them, they have left a void back home that is difficult to fill.
"Obviously, it's a victory for them as artists," said Diana Bracho, a top Mexican actress who until recently ran the Ariel Awards, the country's equivalent to the Oscars. "It's important for the Mexican cinema, because it shows the talent that we have in Mexico to make movies."
"The greatest triumph is that these three (directors) remain 100 percent Mexican; they have not lost a thing, even though they make movies in other countries," said Bracho, who is currently in a theater production with Luna.
Marina Stavenhagen, the new director of the Mexican Cinema Institute, agrees that Hollywood's gain is not necessarily Mexico's loss.
"I don't feel that we have been abandoned by them," said Stavenhagen. "These are people who continue to be linked to the Mexican cinema and with a lot of interest in working in this country. They come and give classes here, and with their added visibility they help us in the short term and medium term."
Luna and Garcia Bernal have a representative in Mexico and are involved in a documentary project called "Ambulantes." Del Toro has a production company.
At the same time, the success of Mexican artists on the international stage is a sign both of their talent and the desperate lack of opportunities back home. In that way, they are not unlike the millions of legal and illegal Mexican workers who sent a record $23 billion home last year.
"Migration is the same in all parts of the world; it speaks to a certain level of misery that forces people to go elsewhere," Bracho said. "But the brain drain and massive migration is not the same thing. The reason for leaving may be the same, but the way they are treated (in their new land) is not. Some are applauded, others forgotten entirely."
Like other immigrant groups, the Mexican artists have supported one another in their foreign endeavors.
"We're in touch all the time. I talk to those guys almost every day," Cuaron said in an interview with The Dallas Morning News late last year. "I feel like the movies are sister movies. They're very different, but they deal with similar thematics. The three of them are about ideology building walls between communication of people. The three of them are about journeys into hope. The three of them deal with children as a question."
Some back in Mexico, like Bracho, believe the tight-knit group now in foreign lands will eventually find its way back home in the form of some joint project to help Mexico's struggling movie industry.
While it may be unfortunate that the three nominated directors could not find the support and financing to continue their projects in Mexico, Stavenhagen says this problem isn't limited to Mexico. "In a global world, Hollywood is the place where you go" for bigger productions.
The Mexican movie industry faces the same hurdles as movie industries in other countries: the dominance of Hollywood because of the sheer quantity of films it produces and its control of the distribution process.
"Mexico is a very important market for Hollywood, and they don't want to give up even a small piece of it," Stavenhagen said. Mexico buys the fifth most movie tickets of any country at 165 million annually, the majority of them for Hollywood-made films. "The challenge for the national cinema is to survive with its own identity ... to make as many films as possible so that three to 10 are hits."
An animated Mexican film for kids last year, "Una Pelicula de Huevos" ("A Movie About Eggs") sold 4 million tickets, showing that domestic cinema can be popular. The average budget for a domestic movie is about $1.2 million, which must be raised from many sources. Part of the problem with the industry is structural. For decades, it has depended on the government for funding and permission. In some administrations, that allowed many movies to be made, albeit with some level of censorship. But in other times, the money dried up and there was no private movie industry to turn to. The Mexican Cinema Institute, which provides funding to most Mexican films even today, said in a recent report that Mexican cinema almost disappeared in 1997, when only nine movies were made.
That total is now up to about 50 per year, including short films and features, but the institute still only spends about $10 million annually on grants to moviemakers. About 65 percent of all films get some government support, often seed money to help get domestic and international grants.
Mexico hasn't seen a big hit domestically since "The Crime of Father Amaro," which was released in 2002 and set records for Mexican ticket sales at 5.2 million. Part of its success was due to timing, given that the movie centers on scandals in the Roman Catholic Church and it was released on the heels of a visit by Pope John Paul II.
Before 2002, Mexico produced critically acclaimed movies including Cuaron's 2001 film "Y tu Mama Tambien" and Gonzalez Inarritu's 2000 release "Amores Perros," the first installment in a trilogy of movies that brought about "Babel." Mexico had not produced a best-foreign-film nominee since "The Crime of Father Amaro" until "Pan's Labyrinth" earned a nod in that category this year.
"The saddest thing is that there is not more support for all these talented young people coming out of film schools in Mexico," said Bracho. There are some very good Mexican movies, she said, but they have limited budgets and limited commercial success.
Compared to Mexico's TV and music industries - the worldwide leaders in Spanish-language entertainment - the film industry is tiny. And that's doubly painful for many Mexicans, given the cinema's so-called "golden age" in the 1940s and beyond, which featured actors including Cantinflas and German "Tin Tan" Valdes. Those movies continue to play on TV.
Hernandez, the Vistas Film Festival director, said the success of the Mexican directors makes it harder to obtain top-notch films for his festival. Before, the three amigos – through the Mexican Cinema Institute – offered their films practically for free.
Now the festival, which screens movies from 24 Spanish-speaking countries and Portuguese-speaking Brazil and Portugal, is off the amigos' play list.
"We end up getting left out of the dance," said Hernandez. "Like Mexico gets left out of the dance."
Chris Vognar in Dallas contributed to this story. |
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