| | |  Entertainment | July 2008 
The First-Ever Mexican Film Festival in New York Says 'Hola'
 Erasmo Guerra - NY Daily News
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| | Samuel Doeck is organizing the first "Hola Mexico Film Festival" in New York City. (Noonan Jeanne/NYDN) | | |
Hola Mexico, the first-ever Mexican film festival in New York, was conceived in Australia.
Which makes all the sense in the world once you meet its 29-year-old creator, Samuel Douek.
Living in Sydney since 2002 and earning a master’s degree, the Mexican-born Douek noted a number of festivals each year that showcased the latest films from Italy to Japan.
“I wanted to put together the same thing for Mexico,” says Douek.
The festival kicked off in November 2006. This is Hola’s third year but the first time the festival is being held outside Australia.
More than half of the 13 films are being shown in the city for the first time — and maybe the last.
“These films may not get a general release and may not come to New York again,” says Douek. “Here’s your chance to not only see these films but to meet the directors and the actors.”
Presented as part of the larger New York International Latino Film Festival, the Hola Mexico Film Festival runs from July 23 to July 27 at the Quad Cinema in Greenwich Village.
All the films are in Spanish with English subtitles.
Featured films include “Llamando a un Ángel” (Calling an Angel), a Tarantino-esque comedy about a love message that affects three men who don’t know each other but have the same name, and “Quemar las Naves” (Burn the Bridges), which revolves around a son, a daughter and their dying mother, and won actress Irene Azuela Mexico’s top acting award.
Douek recommends the documentary “Nacido Sin” (Born Without), by Eva Norvind, which follows the extraordinary life of a man born without arms.
“These films share a raw emotional characteristic that makes you think you’re not watching a movie but what’s really happening,” Douek says.
Born to an Israeli father and a Mexican mother with Russian-Canadian roots, Douek grew up in “El D.F.,” short for Distrito Federal or Mexico City — or as Douek jokingly calls it, “El Defectuoso.”
But it’s those “defects” — the large population and the pollution, the unapologetic divide between the rich and the poor — that he says “inspires great works of art.”
Currently living between New York and Sydney, Douek goes back home often to attend film festivals in Mexico City and Guadalajara.
While he doesn’t see himself living again in the D.F., he says, “I enjoy bringing Mexico to people like myself who live outside of the country.”
delriogrande(at)hotmail.com |
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