Film Premiere
Sofia
Sat, Jul 25, 6pm
Expresión en Corto
Teatro Ángela Peralta
Thu, Jul 30, noon
Auditorio del Estado
Guanajuato 

Making Eden in Mexico  By Melanie Harris de Maycotte In March 2008, the city welcomed young San Miguel screenwriter Elise DuRant and her adventure into fundraising in Mexico for films.

The big kick-off was a lovely, successful dinner at The Restaurant at Sollano 16. Local media covered the event, and the enthusiasm of the local filmmaking scene created momentum that energized the project and set the ball in motion.

With a positive send-off, the whole crew took off to Mexico City to aggressively lobby the large Mexican corporations to take advantage of the federal stimulus for Mexican film.

Created in 2005, the federal stimulus gives companies in Mexico tax breaks for contributing to film projects made in Mexico. It was intended to help Mexico regain some of its status as a film-producing country, as in La Edad del Oro, and has subsequently helped fund some of Mexico’s major film projects.

The prospect of obtaining this kind of public-supported funding opened up the minds of filmmakers across the country and made projects like Eden feasible. By 2008, however, when DuRant and her crew entered the fundraising game in March, it was apparent the stimulus had its disadvantages and wasn’t going to be the path to glory they expected.

DuRant said, “It took a good year to integrate ourselves into Mexico City, to begin to make contacts and get to know certain companies. Because the stimulus package is heavily overseen by Hacienda en IMCINE, a company really wants to know it can rely on the soundness of a project. So, we arrived, and no one knew us…we got a lot of unreturned calls. But, little by little we have been building relationships. And the best news is that at the beginning of this year, a company that strongly supports art films through the stimulus plan committed to contribute to Eden.

“This is an incredible vote of confidence for us. The only thing is that we have to come up with the remainder of the funds. Otherwise we may very well lose what this company has reserved for us this year.”

DuRant continues to move forward despite the pitfalls she encounters. Since the initial fundraising dinner last March, Elsa Reyes has come on board as producer with her production company Zensky Cine and they made a short film entitled Sofia. Shot in four days, and used as a trial run to see how the new relationship would work in a practical filmmaking situation, the making of Sofia (showing in this year’s Expresión en Corto film festival) provided a necessary bonding experience for DuRant and Reyes. The film also demonstrated DuRant’s capabilities as a director. An obstacle that she encountered in the fundraising process was that the funding organizations wanted a visual example of what she could do, and until Sofia was made, she was unable to provide one. Since the film’s completion, FiGa Films, a distribution company based in Los Angeles and New York, has represented Sofia.


About Sofia

Sofia will have its first public screening in San Miguel as part of the Selección Oficial Mexicana of Expresión en Corto on July 25, and again in Guanajuato on July 30. And for those die-hard filmgoers, FiGa Films will be representing Sofia at the 20º Festival Internacional de Cortometrajes de São Paulo this August.

Sofia tells with both humor and sadness the coming of age of 18-year-old Sofia as she awkwardly deals with the loss of her childhood represented by the impending death of her father and only parent, and by the attention her new-found sexuality exposes her to. The film was shot on location in La Condesa, Mexico City, includes a cast of young up-and-coming talents from Mexico City—Sofia de Lara, Emilio Valdes, Luis Calvillo and Damian Romero—has a cameo appearance made by Pedro Infante’s daughter Irma Infante, and showcases work of internationally recognized artist Aldo Chaparro.


The next step for Eden

Support from the San Miguel community is still a major motivating force for DuRant’s continued efforts to make Eden. Discussions of another fundraiser focus on a more grassroots, low-key, how-to-get-involved kind of event. Although Elise is still unable to quit her editing gigs and focus full-time on her filmmaking, the help from sanmiguelenses who want to see this movie about San Miguel, will surely be the deciding factor. DuRant encourages anyone interested in getting involved to contact her directly at edenthemovie@yahoo.com.

Until then, come support her at the Festival Internacional Expresión en Corto this weekend.

Melanie Harris de Maycotte helped represent DuRant’s script Eden at the Expresión en Corto Pitching Market in 2007, and continues to support her filmmaking efforts. She is convinced it is a strong, provocative script, a story that needs to be told.