Take-home Hollywood and Bollywood
By Georgina Ortega April 11, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

The Expresión en Corto International Film Festival—Mexico’s largest and the most prestigious in Latin America—arrives in San Miguel and Guanajuato, July 18–27.

For the past 11 years, it has offered a platform for upcoming talent, uniting them with renowned experts in the global film industry. This year the festival expects 80,000 attendees to view 1,300 films from 70 participating countries.

State-sponsored cultural event

Expresión en Corto, a state-sponsored, nonprofit cultural event that offers free admission to its viewing audience, is made possible thanks to funding from the state government of Guanajuato, the Instituto Estatal de la Cultura, the State Secretary of Tourism, as well as from federal institutions such as the National Ministry of Culture and the Arts (CONACULTA), the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE), the Secretary of Foreign Relations, the cities of San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato, and tax-deductible donations from the private sector. 

The festival screens over 400 films from 10am until 4am each day in 18 venues, which include such unusual locations as the Jardín of San Miguel; the classical outdoor staircase of the University of Guanajuato; and the subterranean streets and tunnels beneath the city of Guanajuato, where gay, lesbian and erotic films are screened during “Midnight Madness.” Horror films show in Guanajuato’s infamous Museo de los Momias and both cities' graveyards, in the heavily attended “Movies with Mummy” program. More conventional venues include Teatro Ángela Peralta, Bellas Artes, Villa Jacaranda, Galería Kunsthaus Santa Fé, MMCinemas and Teatro Santa Ana.

Spotlight Country

Each year Expresión en Corto welcomes a guest country of honor and presents the best of that country’s films. Canada, Spain, Germany, Brazil, France and the US have all been Spotlight Countries in previous years. This year it is India’s turn and the festival celebrates the world’s most prolific film industry.

International Pitching Market

The festival hosts its Fifth Annual International Pitching Market, which each year unites producers, distributors and film financing institutions from around the world with Mexican feature film and documentary projects currently in development. The festival also hosts Mexico’s largest and most respected Seventh Annual National Screenwriting Contest.

In addition, the festival presents workshops, conferences, Women in Film and Television luncheons and tributes to both Mexican and international A-list filmmakers who attend (Oliver Stone, Gaspar Noé, Kenneth Anger and Tim Burton at past festivals).

How can you help?

Expresión en Corto needs support in four areas:

Networking

Expresión en Corto nurtures relationships among directors, producers, actors, actresses, cinematographers, screenwriters, composers and production houses in the film industry, as well as foundations, trusts or corporations. If you know anyone in these fields or institutions, introduce them to festival staff so that they may create an environment for free exchanges between guests, allowing them to benefit from both the festival and the opportunity to meet with other participants.

Adopt a filmmaker

Hosting a filmmaker in your house means being able to share a bit of the San Miguel experience. As a host and delegate of Expresión en Corto, you can offer these talented artists a room to which they have access whenever necessary, without the need of tending to them constantly. Make them feel at home and be their guide, orienting your guests, helping them answer questions that may arise during their stay in our beautiful city.

Your generosity not only helps the festival economically, but also helps preserve the homegrown spirit of the festival, encouraging these artists to return to San Miguel.

Adopt an event

Help support events of particular interest by personally sponsoring the materials for children’s workshops, stilt walkers, the program catalog, Silver Crosses, art exhibits, cocktail parties, a screenwriting prize, simultaneous translation equipment and flights for visiting international guests. Your donation will be noted in the program catalog.

Membership packages

Become a Member Supporter by purchasing one of three Membership Packages. Your support allows the next generation of filmmakers to grow within the industry and provides the public and children of the community with an opportunity to learn more about the art of film.

For more information on how to become a networker, host, sponsor or member supporter, contact Georgina Ortega at 152-7264 or 152-8899. Email: adopt@expresionencorto.com. 

Cinemateca, April 14–20, 2008 

José Luis Pick’n’tip

The Picks

Asian Film Festival
Guest director: Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou was in high school when the Cultural Revolution exploded in China in 1966. Since his father had served in the old guard, Zhang was sent to the countryside to begin 10 years of education (or hard labor) in the fields. While his hands churned the soil, his mind turned to dreams of a directorial career. The desire became so overwhelming that he sold his blood to get enough money for his first camera. 

As soon as the first breezes of artistic freedom wafted across China, Zhang applied to the recently re-opened Beijing Film Academy. When the academy rejected him on the grounds he was too old at age 27, Zhang cited the 10 years stolen from him. The authorities uncharacteristically relented, admitting him in 1978. His training and collaboration with leading lady and muse Gong Li would produce some of China’s most acclaimed films.

If the painter Manet “invented” black, then Zhang invented red. His first major film, Red Sorghum (1987), spills the color across the screen, juxtaposing it against a brown and desolate desert. Red is at once the color of Communism and of the finery of China’s past. The color appears as wine and blood, the sustenance and suffering of twentieth-century China. 

His films explore the intricacies of China’s evolution. Red Sorghum is set in the thirties and depicts Chinese resistance to conquest by Japan. Raise the Red Lantern (1992) casts Gong Li as wife number four of a landowner who brings about his own undoing. Shanghai Triad (1995) places her at the epicenter of a thirties gangland showdown.

Along with fellow directors Tian Zhuangzhuang and Chen Kaige, Zhang is one of the post-Cultural Revolution filmmakers known as the “Fifth Generation.” The Chinese government is not well disposed to these filmmakers—explorations of Maoism’s dark side have caused many of their films to be recalled in China, even as they are stealthily delivered to film festivals in Cannes and Berlin. 

The Tip: 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 buy 12 shows for 450 pesos. Starting Monday, after 11am, buy your tickets in advance for any movie or show of the week. If you have a discount card, collect your pass to secure a seat; don’t take the risk of being locked out. Would you like to receive this info by email? Write to José Luis at alephamour@hotmail.com.  Thank you.


The Movies

Asian Film Festival
Tampopo (Japan 1986) 
Monday, April 14 at noon
Japanese with English subtitles, 114 minutes.
Director: Juzo Itami. Cast: Tsutomu Yamazaki, Nobuki Miiyamoto. 

A celebration of the role of food in Japanese culture, this hit satire was dubbed the first “noodle western” for its parody of American Westerns and Japanese samurai films. Tampopo follows a young widow (Miyamoto) who runs a small noodle restaurant in Tokyo and Goro (Yamazaki), a cowboy hat-wearing truck driver, as they attempt to concoct the perfect bowl of ramen.



Not One Less (China, Yi Ge Dou Bu Neng Shao, 2000)
Monday, April 14 at 3pm
Mandarin with English subtitles, 106 minutes.
Director: Zhang Yimou. Cast: Wei Minzhi, Gao Enman.

Zhang Yimou turns his lens on the travails of modern China’s peasants. Wei (Wei Minzhi) is a 13-year-old girl pressed into serving as a substitute teacher in the school where she just graduated. If she keeps her class intact, she will receive a bonus. When a student leaves for the city, she follows and strives relentlessly to bring him back.



Happy Times (China, Xingfu Shiguang, 2002)
Tuesday, April 15 at noon
Mandarin with English subtitles, 106 minutes.
Director: Zhang Yimou. Cast: Zhao Benshan, Li Xuejian.

In this Chinese comedy about love and the pursuit of happiness, a matchmaker sends middle-aged Zhao (Zhao Benshan) the perfect wife. He tries to impress her by promising a far more extravagant wedding than he can afford. Then, desperate to make money, Zhao gets mired in a hilarious, tangled mess before he decides to come clean to his fiancée.



Country Teachers (China, Feng Huang Qin, 1994)
Thursday, April 17 at 3pm
Mandarin with English subtitles, 90 minutes.
Director: Qun He. Cast: Baotian Li, Xuexin Wang, DaWei Xu.

A committed teacher (Ju Xue) takes a job with very little pay in a small Chinese village, hoping to better the lives of her students. In the process, she gives her time selflessly and learns a tremendous deal about herself—and about the powers of love, kindness and learning. This moving story won two Chinese Academy Awards.



The King of Masks (China, Bian Lian, 1999) 
Thursday, April 17 at 5:30pm
Mandarin with English subtitles,101 minutes.
Director: Tian-Ming Wu. Cast: Zhigang Zhang, Zhigang Zhao.

Nearing the end of his life, Wang—a locally renowned street performer and wizard of the venerable art of mask magic—yearns to pass on his technique. Custom prescribes that he can only hand down his craft to a male successor. The heirless Wang buys an impoverished eight-year-old on the black market. When the child divulges a dreaded secret, Wang faces a choice between filial love and societal tradition.



The Road Home (China, Wo de fu qin mu qin, 2000)
Friday, April 18 at 3pm
Mandarin with English subtitles, 89 minutes.
Director: Zhang Yimou. Cast: Zhang Ziyi, Honglei Sun. 

Zhang Yimou this time trains his camera on a love story between a Chinese boy and girl that endures for 40 years. The Road Home tells the tale of Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) and how she met the love of her life, Luo Changyu, a new schoolteacher assigned to her small village.


Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring (Korea 2004)
Friday, April 18 at 5:30pm
Korean with English subtitles, 95 minutes.
Director: Ki-duk Kim. Cast: Oh Young-soo, Kim Jong-ho. 

This exquisitely filmed drama is entirely set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breathtaking landscape. In the story’s five segments, each season represents a stage in a man’s life. Under the vigilant eyes of Old Monk (Oh Young-soo), Child Monk (Kim Jong-ho) learns a hard lesson about the nature of sorrow when some of his childish games turn cruel.



Hero (Hong Kong, Ying Xiong, 2002)
Friday, April 18 at 7:30pm
Chinese with English subtitles, 99 minutes.
Director: Zhang Yimou. Cast: Jet Li, Maggie Cheung, Zhang Ziyi. 

The Qin King has long been obsessed with conquering all of China and becoming her first Emperor, which makes him the target of three legendary assassins. To anyone who defeats the assassins, the King promises great power, mountains of gold and a private audience. Jet Li heads the stellar cast of Hero as Nameless, the enigmatic county sheriff who earns his audience with the King.



Apocalypto: On Trial
Tuesday, April 15 at 3pm
Wednesday, April 16 at 3pm: Discussion
Maya with English subtitles, 138 minutes.
Director: Mel Gibson Cast: Carlos Báez, Amilcar Ramírez, Israel Ríos, Isabel Díaz, Espiridion Cache. 

Oscar-winning director Gibson moves on from biblical fare to tackle the end of the Mayan civilization in this gripping action-adventure set just before Spain’s conquest. When an invading force threatens his peaceful existence, a courageous native risks everything to protect his way of life—even if it means leaving his beautiful mate and unborn child behind. Professor Guillermo Méndez will discuss with the audience what is true, false or conjecture on Wednesday. 



Paris, Je T'aime (2007) 
Wednesday, April 16 at 5:30pm
Wednesday, April 23 at 3pm
Romance, French with English subtitles, 110 minutes.
Directors: Frederic Auburtin, Alfonso Cuarón, Emmanuel Benbihy, Gus Van Sant, Ethan & Joel Coen, Wes Craven.

A collection of five-minute films brings the City of Lights to life with a unique patchwork of 20 stories. Numerous writers, directors and actors lend their distinctive vision to the project, employing a variety of styles and subject matter. Participants include Gérard Depardieu, Marianne Faithfull, Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Gena Rowlands.



Kids Movies: Cartoons
Saturday, April 19 at noon



Musical Saturdays
Giuseppe Verdi: Rigoleto
Saturday, April 19 at 2:30pm
Cast: Rigoletto, Leo Nucci; Gilda, Inva Mula. Recorded at the Arena di Verona, July 2001.

“Vocally, there is not a weak link among the chief characters; the main strength though is the father/daughter stage partnership between Nucci and Mula. Their teamwork builds up to a no-holds-barred climax at the end of Act II where Nucci is at his best swearing vengeance, sweat dramatically pouring. This final short number, with its hair-raising shift upwards halfway through is taken at breakneck speed, clearly designed to bring the house down—which it would if there was one.”