Cinema Tropical Awards 2015
The New York Times Building
Jan 1st
The Cinema Topical Awards 2015 winners were announced at a ceremony in The New York Times building. Chants of Smoke, by Mexican director Hatuey Viveros, was honored for Best Documentary.
Trailer: "Café: Cantos de humo" (Coffee: Chants of Smoke). 2014. Directed by Hatuey Viveros Lavielle
"Vida y drama en México" Film Series
Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
January 23rd – 30th
As part of their ‘Vida y drama en México’ Film Series, the Yale University Art Gallery screened La negra angustias, a 1950 Mexican film by Matilde Landeta, and two movies by acclaimed director Luis Buñuel: Los olvidados (1950) and El gran calavera (1949). This series was presented as part of the exhibit Vida y Drama de México: Prints from the Monroe E. Price and Aimée Brown Price Collection, which featured a selection of approximately 50 Mexican prints.
Trailer: "Los olvidados" by Luis Buñuel
Trailer: "El gran calavera" by Luis Buñuel
Trailer: "La negra angustias" by Matilde Landeta
Cinema Tropical Festival 2015
Museum of the Moving Image
February 6th – 8th
The Museum of the Moving Image and Cinema Tropical presented the 2015 edition of the Cinema Tropical Festival, celebrating the year's best Latin American film productions, and featuring the winners of the 5th annual Cinema Tropical Awards, which represent the vitality of contemporary Latin American cinema. Mexican films Purgatorio (Rodrigo Reyes, 2012) and Las Marthas (Cristina Ibarra, 2014) were featured.
Trailer: Purgatorio, a film by Rodrigo Reyes.
Trailer: Las Marthas, a film a film by Cristina Ibarra.
Under the Mexican Sky: Gabriel Figueroa—Art and Film
Museo del Barrio
Mar 4th – Jun 27th
From the early 1930s through the early 1980s, Mexican cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1907–1997) helped forge an evocative and enduring image of Mexico. Among the most important cinematographers of the so-called Golden Age of Mexican Cinema, Figueroa worked with leading directors from Mexico, the United States and Europe, traversing a wide range of genres while maintaining his distinctive and vivid visual style. Under the Mexican Sky featured film clips, paintings by Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, Manuel Rodriguez Lozano and José Chavez Morado, photographs, prints, posters and documents, many of which are drawn from Figueroa’s archive, the Televisa Foundation collection, the collections of the Museo de la Estampa and the Museo Nacional in Mexico.
Havana Film Festival of New York
Apr 9th - 17th
Several venues
The Havana Film Festival New York (HFFNY) is an internationally recognized film festival celebrating Latin American cinema. In its 15th anniversary, HFFNY featured the Mexican productions: Los bañistas, by Maximiliano Zunino, Llévate mis amores, by Arturo González Villaseñor, En este pueblo no hay ladrones, by Alberto Isaac and Gloria, by Christian Keller. Gloria was screened on Closing Night and both the director Christian Keller and actress Sofía Espinosa were present for a Q & A.
Los bañistas, by Maximiliano Zunino:
Llévate mis amores, by Arturo González Villaseñor
Gloria, by Christian Keller
HFFNY15 | Gloria - Introduction and Q&A
Mexico at Midnight: Film Noir from Mexican Cinema’s Golden Age
Museum of Modern Art
July 26th - July 29th
Of all the great national, popular cinemas that prospered in the 20th century, the one that remains least well known to American audiences is, paradoxically, the one that originated closest to Hollywood. The Mexican cinema’s Golden Age extended from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s, when Mexican films dominated Latin America and made significant inroads into Spanish-speaking communities in the U.S. With the support of Fundación Televisa, MoMA presented a sampling of one of Mexico’s richest genres, the cine negro or film noir.
"Sânge" at the New York Film Festival
Francesca Beale Theater
Sept 27th - Sept 30th
The Film Society of Lincoln Center celebrates American and international cinema, to recognize and support new filmmakers, and to enhance awareness, accessibility and understanding of the art among a broad and diverse film going audience. Sânge, by Mexican director Percival Argüero Mendoza, made its U.S. debut this year at the New York Film Festival as part of the Shorts Progam 2: Genre Stories, a program brand-new to the NYFF focusing on the best in horror, thrillers, sci-fi, twisted noir, and fantasy shorts from around the world.
Trailer:
* Upon viewing a mysterious and bone-chilling film titled SÂNGE, a young woman’s horror obsession blends dangerously with reality.
12th Morelia International Short Film Festival Winners
King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center / Auditorium
October 28th
The Morelia International Film Festival, one of Mexico’s most renowned gatherings for contemporary cinema, sent six award-winning short films from its 2014 edition ranging from animation to documentary. All films were screened at the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU in Spanish with English subtitles. Following the screening, there was a Q&A with New York based emerging Mexican filmmakers: J. Xavier Velasco (Director/Producer), Tania Zarak (Producer/Writer), Alejandro Mejía (Cinematographer/Director). Sebastián Díaz (Director/Film Curator) was the moderator.
Best Animated Short Film: 9:30 am (9:30 am) Dir. Alfonso de la Cruz · 2014 · Mexico.
Special Mention for a Short Documentary: Man of Maze (El hombre del maíz) Dir. Irving Mondragón · 2014 · France · Mexico.
Best Short Documentary: The Wear of Agony (El sudor de la agonía) Dir. Mariano Rentería Garnica · 2014 · Mexico.
Stories (Historias) Dir. Ana Ireri Campos Estrada · 2014 · Mexico.
Best Work from the Michoacan Section: Never Come Back (Nunca regreses) Dir. José Leonardo Díaz Vega · 2014 · Mexico.
Best Short Fiction Film: Ramona (Ramona) Dir. Giovanna Zacarías · 2014 · Mexico.
Proyector Program 2: Digging the Roots of a Denied Civilization
Maysles Cinema
November 8th – December 13th
Proyector is a showcase of contemporary independent Mexican films blending fiction with non-fiction elements. Program 2: Digging the Roots of a Denied Civilization, presented a series of current visions of indigenous Mexico. Stories and subjects with a strong connection to nature, serve as a metaphor to explore global themes like identity, family or aging. The second part of the program featured the films Rehje and Cuates de Australia. Directors Anais Huerta and Everardo González were present during the presentations.
Trailer Cuates de Australia:
Interview with director Anais Huerta
Credits:
The Mexican Cultural Institute of New York