Tucson Cine Mexico 2010

Tucson Cine Mexico 2010

March 4-7, 2010

All Screenings Free and Open to the Public

Harkins Theatres Tucson Spectrum 18

5455 South Calle Santa Cruz

Sponsored by Cox and Harkins Theatres

Media Sponsors: Univision, 102.1 KCMT La Caliente and La Estrella

            The University of Arizona’s Hanson Film Institute and The Consulate of Mexico in Tucson present Tucson Cine Mexico 2010, a festival of Mexican film.  Tucson Cine Mexico 2010 is the most prominent film festival in the US focusing entirely on the work of Mexican directors, with each screening being the Arizona premiere.

 

Tucson Cine Mexico celebrates the best of Mexican Cinema with Award Winning Filmmakers and Films, a Party at The Tucson Museum of Art, and a partnership with Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s Ambulante Documentary Film Festival.

 

Thursday, March 4, 6 PM

El General/ The General

Harkins Theatres

In Person: director Natalia Almada

 

The past and the present collide as filmmaker Natalia Almada brings to lifeaudio recordings she inherited about her great-grandfather Plutarco Elias Calles, a revolutionary general who became president in 1924. In his time, Calles was called “El Bolshevique” and “El Jefe Maximo” (the foremost chief). Today, he is remembered as “el Quema-Curas” (priest –burner) and as a dictator who ruled through puppet presidents until he was exiled in 1936. Through his daughter’s recordings, EL GENERAL moves between the memories of a daughter grappling with history’s portrait of her father and the weight of his legacy on the country today. Time is blurred in this complex and visually arresting portrait of a family and country living under the shadows of the past. 

 

8:30 PM 

Tucson Cine Mexico Festival Opening Night Party

Tucson Museum of Art

140 N. Main Ave.

Beer, Tequila and Food!

with screening of the short documentary film

Tropico de Cancer

Minimal dialogue in Spanish with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2003, 53 min)

In collaboration with the Tucson Museum of Art

 

A poignant and powerful documentary, TROPICO DE CANCER is a meticulous account of the perilous conditions of a group of families living in the arid desert of San Luis Potosí  in their quest for survival hunting animals to sell them on the highway. Both visually and narrative astonishing, the film is Eugenio Polgovsky¹s documentary debut which was screened in numerous film festivals around the world. 

 

Friday, March 5, 6 PM

Voy a Explotar/ I’m Gonna Explore (Mexico, 2007, 105 min)

In Spanish with English Subtitles

Harkins Theatres

 

Roman, the son of a sleazy right-wing congressman, contributes to his high school talent show by attempting to hang himself on stage.  Maru, from the other side of the tracks, is the only one who claps. They bond in detention, and after staging a mock abduction it’s off in a stolen Volkswagen with daddy’s gun to the end of the night. Two wonderfully fresh performances by Maria Deschamps and Juan Pablo de Santiago grace this engaging and often funny youth film. - The Film Society of Lincoln Center 

 

8:30 PM

Alamar/To the Sea

In Spanish and Italian with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2009, 75 mins)

Harkins Theatres

 

Jorge and Roberta have been separated for several years. They simply come from opposite worlds: he likes an uncomplicated life in the jungle while she prefers a more urban existence. He is Mexican and she is Italian, and she has decided to return to Rome with their five-year-old son, Natan. But before they leave, Jorge wishes to take young Natan on a trip, hoping to teach him about his origins in Mexico...as father and son spend more time together, Natan begins a learning experience that will remain with him forever.

 

10 PM

Los Bastardos/ The Bastards

In Spanish and English with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2008, 90 min)

Harkins Theatres

 

A multiple award winner and 2008 Cannes Film Festival selection, Amat Escalante's Los Bastardos "looks and sounds very impressive" (Variety), and makes an indelibly disturbing impact.

Like the rest of the day-laboring migrant workers who gather together each morning on a southwestern American strip mall sidewalk, Jesus (Jesus Moises Rodriguez) and Fausto (Rubén Sosa) struggle to get ahead in El Norte. But when a callous gringo boss strands them in the middle of a community that exploits them one minute and insults them the next, the two young men cock their sawed off shotgun and calmly take a troubled housewife hostage in her own home. 

Co-produced by Carlos Reygadas (Silent Light, Battle in Heaven), Los Bastardos plumbs the depths of human brutality with the same cool cinematic certitude as the work of Michael Haneke and Bruno Dumont.

 

Saturday, March 6, 6 PM

Cinco Dias Sin Nora/ Nora’s Will

In Spanish and Hebrew with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2008, 100 min)

Harkins Theatres

In Person, Director Mariana Chenillo

 

It may not sound like a comedy, but Chenillo loads the scenario with more Yiddishkeit than a gross of matzo, sure to elicit laughs and knowing nods throughout the Diaspora.- Variety 

José learns that Nora, the woman he was married to for 30 years before divorcing, has committed suicide a few days before Passover. Forced to wait five days for the funeral, so that his son can arrive and the rabbi’s schedule can free up, José discovers that Nora left all of the food for a Passover dinner ready in her refrigerator. But Nora also left something else, a curious photograph that may unlock the mystery of her life and death for the family she left behind. – AFI Film Festival 

 

8:30 PM

Arrancame la Vida/ Tear This Heart Out

In Spanish with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2009, 111 min)

Harkins Theatres

 

Arráncame la vida begins its journey during a transformative period in Mexican history. The Revolution of 1910 is over and the country’s rule is open to whatever politician had the audacity to grab it. Dominating men fight ruthlessly for control, manipulating and exploiting others to gain power.  Growing up in 1930s Mexico, Catalina Guzmán knows little of the world beyond her father’s house, unaware of the political storm that looming over the whole country.  General Andrés Ascensio is one of the iconic men who exemplifies the concept of Mexican machismo.  He arrives unannounced into Catalina’s life, confidently seducing her into marriage.  She follows him willingly, entranced by his power, wealth, sexuality and the escape he offers from her provincial life.  She is pushed into the tedious existence of a politician’s wife, an endless series of state dinners, public speeches and social obligations.  Despite her bravery and enduring spirit, Catalina is encaged by her marriage to Andrés until she meets the young and vibrant Carlos Vives.  The handsome orchestra director provides Catalina with her greatest desire, her greatest love and her greatest tragedy.  Most importantly, Carlos is the catalyst that transforms Catalina definitively and irrevocably.  Based on the iconic novel by Ángeles Mastretta, Arráncame la vida is the story of a young woman searching for freedom and identity during Mexico’s defining era.  -Cine Las Americas 

 

Sunday, March 7, 2 PM

Tijuaneados Anonimos: Una Lagrima, Una Sonrisa/ Tijuanans Anonymous: A Teardrop, A Smile

In Spanish with English subtitles

(Mexico, 2009, 82 min)

Harkins Theatres

In person, co-director Ana Paola Rodriguez España

 

The border city of Tijuana, México is experiencing a crisis of unprecedented violence and ungovernability, this situation affects the daily lives of its inhabitants. Every week, a group of people get together in Tijuaneados Anonymous to share experiences and discuss solutions to the erosive phenomenon that affects: the tijuaneado.  With painful or playful stories, absurd human tragedies, and heroic deeds, the characters reflect on the city, imagining how they want Tijuana to be and how they want to be as individuals. 

 

Those of us who made the film live in Tijuana and the theme of the documentary affects us directly. We are interested in the border culture and social phenomena that we’ve addressed in previous works. The situation in Tijuana has been deteriorating over the past five years. Not only in terms of violence, but the social fabric seems to be disintegrating and the quality of life of its inhabitants has declined. That is why we decided to make a film that provokes people to reflect about what is going on, its causes and effects. – The Filmmakers