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Mexico’s largest film festival needs your help!
By Jean Lauer, June 22, 2007
Expresión en Corto, Mexico´s largest largest competitive film festival and one of the most prestigious in Latin America, celebrates its 10th Anniversary from July 20—(M)29.
The internationally renowned festival is held each year in San Miguel de Allende and in the capital city of Guanajuato. Expresión en Corto welcomes the participation of a guest country of honor and presents the best of that country’s film. In previous years Canada, Spain, Germany, Brazil and France have all been selected as Spotlight Countries. For this upcoming anniversary of the festival, the United States has been invited as the guest country of honor, and the festival will present some of the best of America’s long history of film, both past and present.
Participating US film institutions include: The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences, American Film Institute, Museum of Modern Art, Berkeley Museum Of Art/Pacific Film Archive, Texas Archive of the Moving Image, Frameline, OUTFEST, MIX NYC, South By South West Film Festival, Palm Springs International Film Festival, The Chicago Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance Institute and the University of Southern California and the University of Texas film departments.
Expresión en Corto predicts attendance this year to be in excess of 80,000 total audience members with over 70 participating countries. The festival offers a unique and dynamic platform that celebrates the next generation of filmmakers, which has earned them the distinction as the mavericks and trendsetters of their industry. The festival is a non-profit, state-sponsored, cultural event that does not charge admission to its audience members and presents a variety of films and activities at no cost to the visiting swarms of film fanatics.
The film festival screens over 350 films each day in 16 venues, which include such unusual locations as: the Jardín Principal of San Miguel de Allende; the classical outdoor staircase of the University of Guanajuato; the subterranean streets and tunnels beneath the city of Guanajuato, this year featuring Underground films presented by Kenneth Anger; as well as Horror films in Guanajuato’s infamous Mummy Museum and both cities’ graveyards, which have been personally programmed by award-winning Mexican director Guillermo del Toro. There will also be screenings in more conventional spaces such as: Teatro Ángela Peralta, Centro Cultural Ignacio Ramirez—El Nigromante, Hotel Villa Jacaranda, Galería Kunsthaus Santa Fe, MMCinemas and the Teatro Santa Ana.
The festival also features a 24-Hour Production Rally, which will pit seven professional national and international film crews in a competition to shoot, edit and present a short film within 24 hours during the festival.
The festival once again hosts its Fourth Annual International Pitching Market, which brings together international producers, distributors and diverse film financing institutions from around the world, together with the top-ten Mexican feature film and documentary projects in development at this time.
There will also be an assortment of workshops, conferences, Women in Film and Television and luncheons and tributes to both Mexican and international A-list filmmakers.
How can you help?
With many important national and international filmmakers arriving in San Miguel for the festival between July 20 and 24, the festival organizers would like to request your assistance in helping them give these artists the warmest possible welcome! Here are the four areas of sponsorship opportunities:
Networking
Expresión en Corto invites you to partake in fomenting relationships among its various participants. We would like to invite the top directors, producers, actors, actresses, cinematographers, screenwriters and production houses in the film industry, as well as any corporations interested in sponsoring the festival to be our guests of honor. If you know of anyone in these fields, we would appreciate an introduction to help us create a rich, fulfilling environment with a free exchange of information and ideas.
Adopt a filmmaker
Hosting a filmmaker means being able to share a bit of our world, offering them a glimpse into the true San Miguel experience. Welcoming these artists into your beautiful home is a kind, and friendly gesture. As a host and delegate of Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, you can offer these talented artists a room, to which they have access whenever necessary, with no need to attend to them constantly. Your generosity not only helps the festival economically, but also helps preserve the homegrown spirit,, encouraging these artists to return to San Miguel again.
Adopt an event
This area of donation has been designed so that you may support events that are of particular interest to you by personally sponsoring the materials and resources necessary to produce the children’s workshops, the stilt walkers, the program catalog, the Silver Crosses (tokens of recognition for our special guests), the art exhibits, the cocktail parties, the screenwriting prize, the simultaneous translation equipment and flights for visiting international guests. Your specific donation will be attributed to the event of your choosing and will be noted in our program catalog.
Membership packages
Become a member of the Expresión en Corto International Film Festival during this special 10th anniversary edition by contributing to one of the festival’s three Membership Packages. Your generous donations enable us to continue as a non-profit, cultural event that does not charge admission to its viewing audiences and provides the next generation of filmmakers with an opportunity to grow and succeed within the film industry and to provide the public and children of our community with an opportunity to learn more about the art of film.
For more information, please contact Jean Lauer or Gloria Garcidueñas at 152-8899 or 152-7264. Email:
SanMiguelX@gmail.com.
“Cinemateca Programación para la semana
del 25 de Junio al 1 de Julio 2006”
José Luis Pick’n’tip:
The Picks:
The Middle of the World
If you saw the Brazilian film “Central Station” and enjoyed it, you will also like this one. These movies are like Homerian epics, always ending with a long trip that does not really bring closure to the plot. The film has no real beginning, nor end. It’s joined in progress with them on the road and finishes in motion with the family having to make yet another decision. The mother is determined to stay off the road yet it doesn’t feel “settled” as the camera pans back over Rio’s gorgeous bay. This film contains pain and joy...and centers it on family.
The Tip:
Important:
In order to provide the best viewing experience, the show times for some movies may be adjusted to accommodate their length, be sure to check the schedule carefully. I also want to remind you of our new ticket price; 50 pesos and discount cards 12 shows for 450 pesos
Starting Monday, after noon, buy your tickets in advance for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to assure you get a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out…. Nos vemos en el Cine….
You want to receive this info by email? Write to José Luis at alephamour@hotmail.com.
Thank you.
The Movies:
Lost and Found in Mexico
Monday, June 25 at 5pm Q and A afterwards
Writer/ Director /Producer: Caren Cross
Documentary, English, 53 minutes.
The illusion of the American dream is challenged in this portrait of ex-pats in San Miguel de Allende who discovered that some vital things were missing in their prior lives. While many Mexicans are leaving families behind and risking their lives to cross the border to a better life, this film focuses on the Americans who have decided to cross the border in the other direction - for a simpler life. In Caren Cross’s documentary we meet ex-pats of varying ages who have given up ‘the good life’ in the USA for a home in Mexico that provides more than money can buy. Happy to live with less, among a people they respect and admire, these ex-professionals and executives explain why they have left family and friends behind to live in a country where crowded malls and Blackberries have been replaced by books, art and casual conversations. A question and answer session with, Caren Cross, follows the film.
The Middle of the World (O Caminho das Nuvens 2004)
Tuesday, June 26 at 5pm
Wednesday, June 27 at 5pm
Friday, June 29 at 3pm
Brazillian Cinema, Portuguese with English subtitles, 86 minutes.
Director: Vicente Amorim
Cast: Wagner Moura, Claudia Abreu, Carol Castro, Sidney Magal, Fabio Lago.
It’s a known fact that desperate people will be driven to take desperate measures. And when we say driven, we mean it—literally. This movie is based on the incredible true story of a man who takes his wife and five children on a 2,000-mile bicycle trip across Brazil in search of a decent job. Stars Cláudia Abreu and Manoel Sebastião Alves Filho.
Quitting (Zuotian 2001)
Tuesday, June 26 at 5pm
Thursday, June 28 at 3:30pm
Foreign Dramas, Mandarin with English subtitles, 112 minutes
Director: Zhang Yang
Cast: Jia Fengsen, Chai Xiurong, Wang Tong, Shun Xing, Li Jie, An Bin
A Chinese film unlike any you’ve seen, this true-life story enacted by real-life participants is not a documentary in the traditional sense. Actor Jia Hongsheng (who rose to stardom in China, succumbed to heroin addiction and alienated his family with erratic, schizoid behavior) re-creates this harrowing period in his life. His recovery is as compelling as his collapse, and his family’s efforts to support his return to health are deeply moving.
Kids Movies: Vintage Cartoons
Saturday June 30 at noon
Free entrance, theater capacity.
Musical Saturdays:
Will resume in winter
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