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<title><![CDATA[Morelia International Film Festival]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com</link>
<description><![CDATA[The latest news from the Festival.]]></description>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Malaventura (México) ]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1456</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[By Robert Koehler/ www.variety.comAn
 elderly man&#039;s final day alive in Mexico City is rendered with intensity
 and rigor by filmmaker Michel Lipkes in the aptly titled Malaventura.
 Lipkes&#039; debut feature vigorously flies the flag of the &quot;slow cinema&quot; 
movement, now especially strong among young Latin American and Asian 
directors. A distinct absurdist attitude leavens this existential 
journey, in which the old man&#039;s routines and dreams create a 
destabilizing effect. Result should find a warm welcome on the quality 
fest circuit.Recent Mexican films such as Carlos Reygadas&#039; Battle in Heaven and Nicolas Pereda&#039;s Perpetuum Mobile
 have taken on the Mexico City megalopolis as both character and staging
 area, but it could be argued that Lipkes takes this notion one step 
further in Malaventura. In 
sequence after sequence, the old man (as he&#039;s identified in credits, 
played with rough majesty by non-pro actor Isaac Lopez) is seen in 
relief against the city&#039;s streets, plazas and public spaces. He&#039;s an 
archetype of a man often seen, but more often ignored.The
 opening nine-minute shot places the old man in his humble apartment, 
after an extremely slow fade-in as he awakens, does his morning chores 
and gets ready to go out, his movements counterpointed arrestingly by 
composer Galo Duran&#039;s disturbing music, abetted by Alejandro de Icaza&#039;s 
and Jose Miguel Enriquez&#039;s uncompromising sound design. It&#039;s probably no
 accident that the camera views the old man from a kind of &quot;Ozu angle,&quot; 
the low angle that was a signature of Japanese master Yasujiro Ozu, 
whose several films about the elderly and their fading away echo here.As
 he&#039;s seen walking down his neighborhood streets, the man is dwarfed by 
his environs, and sounds (such as a destitute man reciting the lyrics of
 the Mexican national anthem, or a police car) take on sinister 
qualities. Lipkes frames the spots on the old man&#039;s rounds -- a subway 
car, a park, a taco stand -- as stages on which incidents, observations 
or nonverbal exchanges take place. The taco-stand action suggests Malaventura
 doesn&#039;t take itself grimly seriously, as the stand owner (Reynaldo 
Gavino) is seen, and heard, chopping up every imaginable part of a cow, 
one of the film&#039;s several details of the city&#039;s unique and often 
hilarious textures.It becomes eventually clear -- though the 
impatient may give up at some point, even in a pic with a short 
66-minute running time -- that the film will unwind as the old man does,
 following him through his mundane, sometimes lovely, sometimes 
inexplicable actions. He does have a job, it turns out, selling balloons
 in a park, but even that is colored by the dangers of the city.More
 disturbing are sojourns to a porn cinema that plays as if out of a 
creepy &#039;70s flashback, as well as moments when the old man appears to 
have lost his bearings altogether. A super-sleazy bar in which a man 
continually re-recites a single poem plays like the ultimate dead end 
for those with no future.The finale is less surprising (nor 
intended to be) than it is a natural last step in a downward spiral, in 
which, tellingly, the presence of God is nowhere in sight.Credits
 list the film&#039;s widescreen process with the cheeky invented term 
&quot;Chamagoscope,&quot; Lipkes&#039; joke on some local critics who have labelled his
 and other young Mexican cineastes&#039; films as &quot;Chamago cinema,&quot; slang for
 &quot;dirty cinema.&quot; Digital video lensing by Gerardo Barroso artfully 
emphasizes graininess and desaturated colors, whether in blinding 
daylight or sepulchral night. Duran&#039;s music skillfully worms its way 
into the subconscious.Camera (color, widescreen, DV), Gerardo 
Barroso; editors, Lipkes, Leon Felipe Gonzalez; music, Galo Duran; 
production designer, Nohemi Gonzalez; set decorator, Fernando Barroso; 
costume designer, Gonzalez; sound (Dolby Digital), Federico Gonzalez; 
sound designers, Alejandro de Icaza, Jose Miguel Enriquez; re-recording 
mixer, Alejandro de Icaza; digital effects supervisor, Jose Luis 
Salazar; assistant director, Maria Fernanda de la Peza; casting, Adrian 
Arce.Contact the Variety newsroom at news@variety.com]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1456</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Morelia: shelter from the sensation/Sight and sound]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1454</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0600</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[I’m sitting in a cheap, empty tacos bar in Mexico City. It’s late at 
night. Distant music thuds and I’m drinking Mexican wine. There’s a 
touch of film noir about this moment. If only I were wearing a trench 
coat like Robert Mitchum in Out of the Past; if only Jane Greer would 
walk in, back lit.My mind flashes back to what just happened. I spent a week in a city 
with razor-sharp sunlight and shadows – Morelia – at its ninth film 
festival, which had invited me to join the Mexican Feature Film jury and
 to show a 100-minute extract of my movie The Story of Film: An Odyssey.In good writing the theme creeps up on you; but here, after two glasses,
 I’ll just say it like Walter Neff might say it: the Morelia festival 
this year was, for those in the mood, a struggle between maximalism and 
minimalism, like Carmen Miranda and Robert Bresson in an arm wrestle.

The films themselves were firmly in the Bressonian less-is-more camp. At
 the start of the new millennium, in films like Japón and Battle in 
Heaven, Carlos Reygadas dared to stare with Bressonian blankness (as if 
in reaction to the Mexican tradition of melodrama and telenovella) at 
socially divided, pious, beautiful Mexico, a nation looking forward to 
the moment when its politics might eventually come good. And before him,
 in the 1970s and 80s, Mexican director Paul Leduc had used a spare 
filmic palette too. Seven of the nine new Mexican features in Morelia by
 first- and second-time directors seem to agree that the inscrutable 
stare work.Read more here.



]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1454</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[At the Movies]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1446</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[But the city cleaned up its streets, activated the tourist trade, and 
thanks to much skilled restoration now looks even more colonial than it 
used to. The effect is of a visit to an elegant and bustling 18th 
century, updated by cars and discos and cellphones. And for one week of 
the year at least, the time of its annual international film festival, 
now in its ninth season, Morelia has glamour in addition to its old 
charm: red carpets, parties, international directors and stars, 
journalists everywhere, lots of happy gawking crowds. A waitress asks me
 discreetly when Diego Luna is arriving. I can’t tell her, because I 
don’t know; and I don’t tell the waitress I don’t know who Diego Luna 
is.


The festival has various premieres, retrospectives of the work of 
several directors, thematic cycles (the presence of Mexico in film noir,
 for example), showcases for the films of special guests (in this case 
Volker Schlöndorff and Béla Tarr), and competitions for best Mexican 
documentary, feature film and short. Along with Mark Cousins and 
François Dupeyron, I am a member of the jury for the best feature. Of 
course the chance to watch films you are not judging is one of the 
attractions of such a festival, and I thought of devoting this space to 
Jacques Tourneur’s Out of the Past (1947),
 an inspired film noir I hadn’t seen before, where the ruthless, 
calculating woman, in the shape of Jane Greer, may also really care for 
the man she is framing and using, a very young Robert Mitchum. This 
complexity is not going to do her any good, because both the plot and 
Mitchum believe in the simpler story of her murderous guile. But we are 
left wondering if there isn’t some sort of baffled innocence lurking in 
her evildoings.

The festival programme also allows for riffs and sequences you couldn’t 
have foreseen. I came to wonder, for instance, why new Mexican movies 
linger so obsessively over lost or distressed figures whom ordinary, 
undamaged people can’t help, and indeed for whom normality itself has 
become a brutal, unforgiving enemy. There may be a link here to the use 
of black comedy to cope with unmanageable realities, and an accidental 
sequence of viewings brought this strongly to mind. One day I saw Luis 
García Berlanga’s The Executioner
 (1963), in which a young man becomes a public executioner in Spain: 
accommodation is scarce, and this way he is entitled to a flat. His hope
 is that no one will be sentenced to death for a long time, and his plan
 is to resign as soon as it does happen, before he is required to act. 
He isn’t opposed to capital punishment, just horrified by the thought of
 the job and its unpopular social aura. The truly memorable moments of 
unlaughable comedy come when he finally has to take a man’s life. The 
condemned criminal is sick, and is half-led, half-carried towards his 
death by a group of warders. Behind him the reluctant, still struggling 
executioner is dragged along by another group. In one shot these two 
clusters of figures in black, seen from behind in long shot, cross an 
empty courtyard within the prison, and vanish. This is as close as we 
get to the actual execution, but we feel we have seen some sort of 
parable about conformity and coercion, and how death’s servants will 
always get the job done.

The Mexican movie I saw the day after, Kenya Márquez’s Expiration Date (Fecha
 de Caducidad; ‘Best Before Date’, or ‘Best Before’, would be a catchier
 and crueller translation) picks up this note, but is even darker. The 
audience was laughing out loud, but I felt its (irresistible) humour 
called for a more troubled reaction. It stars the well-known Mexican 
actor Damián Alcázar as an odd-job man who is delighted to find a 
beat-up old Datsun abandoned on the wasteland where he lives. He is less
 delighted to find a severed head beside the car, and much of the movie 
has to do with his trying to dispose of it. There are two other stories –
 that of a girl who has killed her abusive boyfriend and run away, and 
that of a mother whose graceless grown-up son has disappeared – and the 
narrative takes up the three different points of view in turn. One of 
the beauties of the film is that each of the characters is forced to 
invent a story for what is happening to them, and each set of lies fools
 someone else irremediably. The film’s combination of perfectly false 
stories and impeccably pitched grim jokes says a whole lot, it seems to 
me, about how one talks about the unspeakable.
The Iliad of Homer - University of Chicago Press

There’s no connection through comedy to Béla Tarr’s The Turin Horse (2011),
 which is probably the most impressive film I’ve seen at the festival, 
although Tarr himself was very funny about it in the Q&amp;A session 
after its first showing. Asked if the division of the narrative into six
 days had any significance, he said the inhabitants of a Catholic 
country – as I write the remains of John Paul II are doing the local 
rounds, Pátzcuaro this afternoon, Morelia this evening – should know the
 answer to the question, and then added a gloss to the effect that God 
took six days to make the mess we live in, and then had the gall to give
 himself a day off. The movie, by implication, takes six days to let the
 mess unwind to its final point, and there is no seventh day.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1446</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[9th FICM ends in fiesta]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1426</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 22:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[










Acting as Master of Ceremonies, actress Irene Azuela
presented María del Rocío Pineda, mayor of Morelia, who thanked visitors for
coming to Morelia, which she called a city of fun, culture and traditions.

&quot;For the people of Morelia, it is very important
that you share your positive experience in this calm, harmonious and peaceful
city,&quot; she said.

Jaime Hernández, Morelia state secretary of culture,
who represented Michoacán Governor Leonel Godoy, said it was a privilege to be
part of those institutions that support the festival.

He spoke about the city&#039;s early urbanists. &quot;The
body of the city is formed by its streets, plazas, its own
characteristics,&quot; he said. &quot;It has charming spots, which have
contributed to it becoming a World Heritage Site because of its architecture.
But all cities have a soul, which has to do with its people, its identity, with
its activities and its culture. The Morelia International Film Festival and
everything involved with the film industry are now part of the soul and essence
of this city. FICM is not only the body but also the soul of this city.&quot;

Azuela continued the ceremony naming the members of
the jury in each competitive section, who later announced the winners of this
year&#039;s festival.

FICM directors Alejandro Ramírez, president;
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president and Daniela Michel, director
addressed the public and officially closed the ninth edition of the festival.

Ramírez congratulated the winners and thanked the
invaluable support of the state of Michoacán, the city of Morelia, Conaculta,
IMCINE, and the embassies of France, Spain, United Kingdom and the United
States, as well as the festival sponsors.

&quot;To the directors who year after year allow us
to premiere their works at the festival; to the jury members who generously
give their time, their knowledge and their work; to the Morelia audience and
the different places they visited and who kept the theaters full. To the people
of Morelia who warmly embrace the festival with their hospitality.&quot; He
ended by thanking Michel and Cárdenas Batel for their nine years of working
together.

Cárdenas Batel said, &quot;In this festival, we&#039;ve seen
it all, from our producer falling down the stairs and ending up with a sprained
ankle, and who is recuperating successfully by drinking tequila, thanks to
Cuervo our sponsor; political campaigns, the book festival, a poet&#039;s conference,
a protest in the theater&#039;s concession stand, the relics of the Pope, and
Miriam&#039;s birthday. But we have a team that is so committed to the festival that
they make these crazy days a pleasant chaos, for you a peaceful haven...&quot;

Michel paid special tribute to the legendary director
Luis Valdez who stayed during the entire festival and thanked Charles Tesson,
the new director of Critics&#039; Week of the Cannes Film Festival, and all others
who made the festival possible. She praised James Ramey for his excellent work
in the remodeling of the Teatro Emperador Caltzontzin and the entire team that
made this dream a reality.  She
underscored the work of Favio López &quot;who organizes the theaters of
Cinépolis and keeps them impeccably clean.&quot;

She also thanked Miguel Rivera, Ramón Ramírez and
Jaime Ramírez, &quot;who has been a pillar of the festival&quot; and the entire
team.

&quot;It is an honor to work with all of you,&quot;
she concluded. &quot;You don&#039;t stop working for a minute, night or day. You
know how difficult this festival is and I am proud to work with each one of
you. And I also learn from you.&quot;

If you&#039;d like to see the complete ceremony, click
here.

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1426</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Michel Gondry visits Morelia]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1428</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 20:30:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[French
director Michel Gondry visited the 9th Morelia International Film Festival to
present Be Kind, Rewind starring Jack
Black. Before the showing, the filmmaker held a press conference in which he
spoke about his The Home Movie Factory.

The
Home Movie Factory has been installed in contemporary art museums in New York,
Sao Paolo and Johannesburg for two-month-long sessions. Gondry started this
project in the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris in February 2011.

After
the conference with the press and public, the director headed for the red
carpet event at Cinépolis Sala 4. There he spoke briefly with the audience and
played a short tune on the piano before the projection of his movie began. 

If you
want to see the conference, click here]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1428</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Days of Grace in Morelia]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1430</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[












Days of Grace,
Gout’s first work, is a film that weaves the story of three characters: a cop,
a hostage and a wife, in three different moments in time: 2002, 2006 and 2010,
dates that coincide with three soccer World Cups.

The movie was also presented by Gout; actors Kristyan
Ferrer, Eileen Yáñez and Harold Torres; photographer Luis David Sansans; art
director Benjamín Trujillo and producers Adriana Bello and Leopoldo Gout.
 

If you would like to see the presentation of Days of Grace, click here. 

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1430</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Morelia Lab Students Attend Pitching Session]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1433</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[This year, Morelia Lab 2011 selected a total of 27
works: 16 from Mexico, five from Argentina, two from Chile, and one each from
Brazil, Colombia and Costa Rica.

The workshop, co-directed by Carlos Taibo and Andrea
Stavenhagen, offered discussions with members of the national and international
film industry like Luis Valdez, father of Chicano cinema and special invited
guest at FICM, Richard Ham of Shadow Entertainment and Alejandro Ramírez,
general director of Cinépolis.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1433</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[EDUARDO VERÁSTEGUI SHOWS LITTLE BOY]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1431</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[













The
screenplay by Alejandro Monteverde and Pepe Portillo is situated in the Second
World War, and it narrates the story of Pepper Busbee, a small boy who everyone
underestimates because he is short. His idyllic family life is interrupted by
the recruitment of his father to fight in the South Pacific front. Pepper faces
hard times without the support of his father, his only friend. Destiny puts him
to the test while he tries with all his might to achieve
the impossible: bring his father home.

If
you want details about this project by Monteverde, winner of the Audience Award
in the Toronto Film Festival, click here. 

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1431</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Sony Conferences]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1434</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 17:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Here are excerpts from
the encounters. Click here on the name:]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1434</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[CARLOS LORET DE MOLA AND JUAN CARLOS RULFO PRESENT DOCUMENTARY]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1427</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 16:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[














Loret de Mola and Rulfo were joined by the
directors of the organization Mexicans First: David Calderón, president;
Alejandro Ramírez, vice president; Carlos X. González,
director; as well as producer Daniela Alatorre.

At the end of the free showing at Cinépolis
Centro Sala 4, the group held a question-and-answer session with the public, in
which several people praised the film. Afterward, there was a press conference
at the Teatro José Rubén Romero.

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1427</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Eva Aridjis Presents Blue Eyes]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1432</link>
<pubDate>Sat, 22 Oct 2011 15:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[The Blue Eyes is a supernatural thriller about Karen and Paul, a
young American couple that travels to the state of Chiapas on vacation. During
the trip, they have an experience at a market that changes their lives.

 Aridjis received the Best Documentary award at FICM 2003
for Children of the Street (Niños de la
calle) and her documentary Saint
Death (La santa muerte) was an
official selection at FICM 2007. Following Saturday&#039;s screening, she held a
brief session of questions and answers. If you would like to hear it, click
here.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1432</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Gael García Bernal Receives José Cuervo Award]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1425</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 14:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[












Mexican
actor Gael García Bernal received the José Cuervo Award of 120,000 pesos today,
which he will devote to two projects, one for television and the other to film.
But he didn&#039;t provide further details.

FICM
President Alejandro Ramírez said that Casa Cuervo has been a sponsor of the
festival since its first edition and for the past seven years it has given an
award to an outstanding figure in Mexican cinema.

Rodrigo
Braun, director of public relations at Casa Cuervo, presented the check to the
actor who he described as &quot;a Mexican ambassador in the rest of the
world.&quot;

&quot;He
is a great actor who has made us laugh and has made us cry,&quot; Braun said.
&quot;He is a great producer, a great human being who has supported Mexico and
its people. We are very proud to give this award to Gael. It is a recognition
of his career and also of his human qualities.&quot;

Upon
receiving the check, García Bernal said: “Thank you for this incredible award …
I’m happy to be here. The first time was in the second edition. The festival
has changed a lot, above all in the enthusiasm that it has awakened in the
public to see movies.”

FICM
Director Daniela Michel addressed the audience: “It’s a great honor to have Gael
with us every year. He is a great friend, admirable, kind, who has supported us
at every moment in the festival—even the toughest ones we’ve been through. I
want to give him recognition. Thank you for being such a great friend.”

Afterward,
Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, FICM vice president, gave García Bernal the “Little
Eye” Ojito sculpture made by Michoacán artist Javier
Marín. Batel said, “With this sculpture, we recognize the work of invited
guests and others.”

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1425</guid>
</item>
<item>
<title><![CDATA[Throngs Gather To Greet Gael]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1423</link>
<pubDate>Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[Dressed
in a black jacket and jeans, the Mexican actor walked down the red carpet,
giving autographs and greeting the euphoric crowd that had gathered two hours
before he arrived at the Cinépolis Centro Theater.

Accompanied
by the film&#039;s director, Julia Loktev, García Bernal tried to answer questions
by reporters over the shouts of the fans. The two were joined by FICM directors
Alejandro Ramírez, president, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas Batel, vice president, and Daniela
Michel, director.

Prior to
the screening, Loktev said that in this film the audience would see the actor
in a very different role than what they are accustomed to seeing him in.

For his
part, García Bernal explained that one of the reasons he decided to participate
in the project was because he wanted to get to know the Caucuses.

&quot;I
read a novel which perhaps some of you are familiar with -- &#039;A Heroe of Our
Time&#039; by Mikhail Y. Lermontov that took place there,&quot; he said. &quot;I
liked this place very much, it is very old geologically speaking...I want to
thank Julie for this experience and for all that it gave to me.&quot;

At the
end of the screening, García Bernal left for the Plaza Benito Juárez where
another crowd was impatiently waiting to greet him and see the documentary The Invisibles (Los Invisibles), that he
co-directed with Marc Silver.

As he met
his enthusiastic fans, the actor thanked the public and dedicated the
documentary to migrants, especially Michoacanos.

The Invisibles, whose
main theme is the present migration situation, includes interviews with Cristina Rivera Garza, Diego Osorno, Lydia Cacho, Fernanda
Solórzano, Gabriela Warkentin, Fabio Morábito, León Krauze and Fabrizio Mejía
Madrid. 

García Bernal will receive the Tequila Tradicional Award
given by the Casa Tequila Cuervo.

If you&#039;d like to see the details of the red carpet, click
here.

 

  ]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1423</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Mark Cousins presents his The story of film: an odyssey]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1424</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 21:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[














FICM Director Daniela Michel welcomed Cousins at the film’s showing—its
debut in Mexico. Michel introduced him to the audience as a great connoisseur
of cinema.

The short version of the film—which in its original form lasts 15
hours—features interviews with world-renowned directors Bernardo Bertolucci,
Jane Campion, Gus Van Sant, Wim Wender and others. The abbreviated version runs
1 hour and 46 minutes.

Cousins is part of the jury for the Mexican Feature
Film Section in the festival.

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1424</guid>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Béla Tarr presents The Turin Horse]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1418</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 10:15:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[










FICM Director Daniela Michel, who welcomed Tarr before a packed
theater, said:

&quot;We are presenting the Mexican premiere of a master work. The Turin Horse is an extraordinary film
by the most important contemporary director. We have the great honor to share
this screening with a director who we greatly admire and who has had a great
influence on young filmmakers.&quot; 

She encouraged the audience to see Tarr&#039;s five films that are being
screened during this year&#039;s festival. &quot;You have to see Sátántangó,&quot; she said. &quot;We hope
it isn&#039;t true that he doesn&#039;t want to continue making films, as he has said,
because he is truly an extraordinary artist.&quot;

After a long, enthusiastic applause, Tarr thanked the audience for
coming to see his film &quot;when you could have done thousands of other
things.&quot;

&quot;But you came to see me, this black-and-white film, that is long
and boring. It is a cold film, ugly, miserable... It&#039;s true, but I love
it.&quot;

Michel also welcomed his film editor Ágnes Hranitzky, whom she
described as an &quot;extraordinary woman.&quot; 

&quot;As you know she has been very linked to Béla Tarr&#039;s creative
process,&quot; she added. &quot;She began working, editing, right when they
started shooting the film. They have a great artistic understanding.&quot; 

The Turin Horse begins with the
following anecdote. &quot;In Turin on January 3, 1889, Friedrich Nietzsche
steps out of the doorway of No. 6 Via Carlo Albert. Not far from him, the
driver of a hansom cab is having trouble with a stubborn horse. Despite all his
urging, the horse refuses to move, whereupon the driver loses his patience and
whips it. Nietzsche comes up to the throng and puts an end to the brutal scene,
throwing his arms around the horse&#039;s neck and sobbing. His landlord takes him
home, where he lies motionless and silent for two days on a couch until he
mutters his last words. He goes on to live for another 10 years, silent and
demented, cared for by his mother and sisters. &#039;We do not know what happened to
the horse.&#039;&quot;

Once put into this context, the film tells the story of six days in the
lives of a driver, his daughter and a horse, in an impressive black-and-white
landscape as they try to survive an indescribable and apocalyptic windstorm.
Living in the middle of nowhere and facing imminent destruction, these three
characters confront the inevitable with dignity.

At the end of the screening, Tarr, whose films are characterized by the
purity of their visual narrative and the careful management of time, answered
the numerous questions from the audience.

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1418</guid>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Michel Lipkes Presents Mexico City Conversations]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1421</link>
<pubDate>Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[The
film explores the independent art scene with Mexican film artists like Gabino Rodríguez, Francisco
Barreiro, Yulene Olaizola, Rubén Imaz, Natalia Almada, Nicolás Pereda, Carlos
Reygadas, Michael Rowe, Arturo Ripstein and Paz Alicia Garciadiego.

 

Lipkes said the film is a series of
documentaries that Cine+ is producing. The first was New York City Conversations, followed by Mexico City Conversations, and now it is producing Buenos Aires City Conversations.

 

&quot;I also appear at the end of the
documentary because I made a film called Malaventura,
which is my attempt to portray Mexico City mainly through film movements
and related genres.&quot; 

 

 

 ]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1421</guid>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Michel Gondry comes to FICM]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1416</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:15:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[





Gondry&#039;s visit coincides with that of Mexican actor Gael García Bernal who, on Thursday, will present the four-part documentary program The Invisibles as well as his film The Loneliest Planet by director Julia Loktev. They both worked together in The Science of Sleep (2006), the film shown at the closing ceremony of FICM 2006.
Currently, Gondry is involved in a project that was conceived and directed by him in February 2011 at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris: The Home Movie Factory (L&#039;Usine de films amateurs), a provisional film studio, assessible to all and created with the intention that the public can make its own movies.
The film factory works in the following manner: The participants sign up in the order that they arrive, and following the steps of the creative process, they leave three hours later with their work in DVD, in the style of Be Kind, Rewind, the starting point of this new project.
In the beginning, this project was installed in contemporary art museums for periods of two months (New York, Sao Paolo, Paris, Johannesburg) and Gondry&#039;s intention is to install it in other cities around the world.
In the 1970s, the director entered the artistic world with a rock band called Oui, Oui. Gondry illustrated the group&#039;s song with his singular aesthetic, full of bold colors, and demonstrating his natural technical skills. Later on, he became a renowned videographer. In this area, he worked with the likes of Chris Cunningham and Spike Jonze, as well as with musical talent, including The White Stripes, Massive Attack, Björk and Draft Punk. The last two launched him to fame with &quot;Around the World.&quot; He has also made successful spots for companies like Air France, Gap and Smirnoff.
With the creative help of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman he made his debut with Human Nature (2001) and later worked with him in the popular Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He also got involved in documentary films with The Thorn in the Heart (L&#039;epine dans le Coeur, 2009), a movie he dedicated to his grandmother.
Gondry was the president of the jury at Cinéfondation and the short film section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2011.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1416</guid>
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<title><![CDATA[Schlöndorff  Presents a new version of The Tin Drum]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1417</link>
<pubDate>Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[













Schlöndorff explained that, ever since he made the
film, he had wanted to include about 20 minutes of additional material, but the
distributor didn’t permit it. With the inclusion of the additional scenes 30
years later, Schlöndorff said the film is finally just as he had conceived it
in the original script.

“I’m amazed that 30 years later I can present this
movie to a full house,” Schlöndorff said. “This version isn’t a ‘director’s
cut.’ It’s The Tin Drum—period.”

If you’d like to see how Schlöndorff incorporated
the new material into his film, click here.

]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1417</guid>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[José Gordon at FICM]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1415</link>
<pubDate>Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:00:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[






Each year, the Morelia International Film Festival screens the work of Imaginantes, a project that aims to promote culture in its different forms through various artists.
The short film Imagina otra cultura, imagina México celebrates Mexican bicentennial festivities with a cultural offering based on animated stories that focus on the rich creativity of Mexican literature, pictorial art and music.
Gordon said that showing Imaginantes&#039; short films at the festival is of utmost importance because it is place where ideas and voices from different cultures come together. 
He added that Imaginantes&#039; next work will be dedicated to children.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
<guid isPermaLink="false" >http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1415</guid>
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<item>
<title><![CDATA[Schlöndorff Medal]]></title>
<link>http://www.moreliafilmfest.com/en/news.php?id=1411</link>
<pubDate>Mon, 17 Oct 2011 21:45:00 -0500</pubDate>
<description><![CDATA[




FICM Director Daniela Michel underscored the importance of Schlöndorff’s work. The director, who is known to be a great lover of Mexican culture, is this year’s guest of honor. Voyager debuted in Mexico in 1991, Michel said.
She thanked UNAM’s Film Archive, Ingmar Bergman Chair and the Goethe Institute for their support, which made it possible to bring Schlöndorff to Mexico and finance the retrospective of his work. She turned the stage over to the director.
“I love coming to Mexico,” he said. “I’d swim here if it weren’t for the existence of airplanes!”
The public loved that last line and applauded profusely. 
The Confession of the Night
The story of how he came to make the movie Voyager was a personal one.
Visibly emotional, Schlöndorff said that he visited Mexico for the first time 50 years ago as an assistant director. He fell in love with a Mexican woman, whom he brought back with him to Germany. To this day, he confessed, he still doesn’t understand why the relationship didn’t work. And whenever he returns to Mexico, he returns yearning for his lost love.
He went on to explain that he didn’t know how to handle the success that came to him after the 1979 debut of his movie The Tin Drum. Seven years later, he was living in New York depressed, divorced and still unhappily in love.
Schlöndorff recalled walking 11th Avenue and realizing that he had lost control of his life and his career. He started seeing a psychiatrist. One day, he recounted, he got on the subway and saw people who were unhappier than him and he burst into tears.
That moment led to an epiphany. Schlöndorff remembered a novel he had read 20 years before: Voyager by Max Frisch, a story about a man who believes he has control of his life. The man’s journey happens to begin in Mexico.
Guadalupe Ferrer, who heads up the UNAM Film Archive, gave a medal to Schlöndorff inscribed with the archive’s name. She noted that the recognition was for a venerable director who has known how to read, recreate and exhibit the essence of universal literature.
“Thank you, Master Schlöndorff,” Ferrer said.]]></description>
<author><![CDATA[info@moreliafilmfest.com (FICM)]]></author>
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