Print
Email
ShareMEXICO CITY - The budding filmmakers at the INDIE film school prop up a fishing boat in a grassy field. Working with a professional crew, they use special effects to turn that field into a stormy sea for the low-budget narco-drama “Malverde.”
The 20-something students aspire to join an exploding Mexican film industry, including directors Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Babel”) and Guillermo Del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”) and actors Salma Hayek (“Frida”) and Gael Garcia Bernal (“The Science of Sleep”).
Like the sleight-of-hand with the boat, however, the awards aren’t the whole story.
Even as the Oscars give rise to national pride, unknown film students and A-list actors are dousing the party by noting that the nominees went overseas to earn their honors because of indifference from the government and filmgoers.
In a country that sends so many citizens abroad, the breakthrough of Mexican artists worldwide has generated a wave of soul-searching, at times proud and wistful.
“I think `bittersweet’ is how I would say it,” said Alejandro Ramirez, a boyish first-time director and instructor at the film school. “We are a country of storytellers, of myths, of legends. You just have to lift a rock and you will find talent. But these great storytellers are not appreciated.”
Mexican filmmakers had already won awards or achieved success in the U.S., for films such as “Amores Perros,” “Y Tu Mama Tambien” and “Like Water for Chocolate.” Hayek co-produced the English-language film “Frida,” which earned her an Academy Award acting nomination.
Ramirez, 28, said this resurgence inspired him to make films, including his first feature-length movie, “We Have All Sinned,” which began production this week in nearby Puebla.
The real flurry of creativity has come in these sorts of productions, far outside the spotlight.
Directors made 53 films in Mexico in 2006, up from 14 in 2002, according to the Mexican Film Institute, a government agency. The number could top 60 in 2007, officials estimate, and several mid-sized Mexican cities such as Morelia have launched film festivals.
The country now boasts 10 film schools, up from two in 2001, said Juan Carlos Blanco, who heads an academic consortium and co-founded INDIE on the rural outskirts of Mexico City.
On INDIE’s expansive terrain, students tinker with sound effects in recording studios and comb through a warehouse of props that they use to film short-form movies on the capital city’s gritty streets and subways.
The campus is abuzz with breakthroughs by three directors who share a deep friendship and intense professional collaboration. A Tribune film critic called them “psychologically inseparable” and compared them to Godard, Truffaut and the close-knit auteurs behind the French “New Wave” of the 60s.
Together, their films have generated 16 Oscar nominations, led by the multi-continent epic “Babel,” co-produced and directed by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu.
Guillermo del Toro directed “Pan’s Labyrinth,” a fantasy set in Spain. The third member of Mexico’s most successful filmmaking trio, Alfonso Cuaron, won nominations for co-writing and co-editing the futuristic “Children of Men.”
The success of Gonzalez Inarritu, del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron (who directed “Children of Men”) has dominated Mexico’s entertainment news for weeks. President Felipe Calderon made it a point to publicly salute their recent triumphs at the Goyas, Spain’s version of the Oscars.
But Diego Luna, one of Mexico’s best-known actors, has been equally vocal in calling the country’s film industry to task. At the opening ceremony of a documentary film festival in Mexico City last month, Luna told reporters it was disingenuous for government officials to celebrate the industry’s success.
“It is a great call for attention, proof that in Mexico there is a lot of talent but what is missing are paths to channel it,” Luna said. “What’s missing is the desire to stay here because many people decide to make movies in Mexico but few follow through.”
The Mexican government tried to help the industry by passing Article 226, a law that allows domestic projects to recoup 10 percent of production expenses. But filmmakers complain that the program is bogged down in red tape and that its budget is inadequate.
Victor Ugalde, director of FIDECINE, the federal agency that provides incentives for the film industry, acknowledged that the government has not done enough. In a country tackling poverty, public insecurity and other challenges, cultural endeavors often take a back seat, Ugalde said.
“For Mexico to compete with other countries in the First World, and their level of support and stimulus, we still have a long way to go,” Ugalde said.
Austria Almaraz, a 22-year-old aspiring film photographer who walked away from an engineering degree, said she is proud that Mexican filmmakers have branched out beyond their homeland. But she thinks it is important that a distinctly Mexican cinematic vision thrive as well.
Her first short film, “Ritual,” was based on a friend’s experience leaving jail in Mexico City. The film blends Roman Catholic imagery and the capital’s criminal element with plot twists akin to “The Sixth Sense.”
Like many filmmakers, Almaraz sees movies as a chance to give audiences worldwide a glimpse of Mexico beyond folk tales and illegal immigrants at the border. Even a film like “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” ostensibly a road picture, was full of scathing critiques of Mexican politics.
“Film can share facts that others don’t know and that, even as Mexicans, we don’t recognize. It’s those `little worlds’ that remain hidden in our country,” she said.
Despite their frustrations, Mexican filmmakers hope the Oscars will represent a turning point for the industry. Ramirez, the young director, fantasizes about an Academy Award triggering a celebration on the major thoroughfare of Paseo de la Reforma that would rival the joy of a World Cup soccer victory.
But Moises Vinas, a film historian at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said he is less optimistic that Oscar victories will elevate moviemaking to a national priority.
“There is very little nationalism for being a country that produces film, art, culture. We have a very shortsighted vision,” he said. “If we win an award, that’s always a boost. But I worry that it will end up being praise for some very talented people and that’s where the story will end.”
