GUADALAJARA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL IN LOS ANGELES 2018

By José Alberto Hermosillo

FICG in LA! 2018 poster

The Guadalajara Film Festival in Los Angeles continues building bridges between Mexico and the USA. Besides the features, documentaries, and short films, the festival brings other essential works from Ibero-America and the USA, including the Oscar entries for Best Foreign Language Film from Peru, “Wiñaypacha/Eternity,” and “Champions” from Spain.

 

Thirty-three years ago in Mexico, the Guadalajara Film Festival was founded by Oscar-winner director Guillermo del Toro. Today, the festival in Los Angeles wants to contribute to the public's necessity for Diversity. The representation of other communities is strong, with the first film about Afro-Mexicans in Oaxaca: “La Negrada.”

  Many Angelinos still need to become familiar with the Guadalajara International Film Festival in Los Angeles. It is celebrated in the heart of Hollywood with the association of the UDG Foundation-USA and the University of Guadalajara-Mexico.

Xavier Lopez “Chavelo,” “The Mongolian Conspiracy”

The festival in Los Angeles brings legendary Latino celebrities such as actor/producer Hugo Stiglitz (“Alive/Sobrevivientes de los Andes”) and the long-lived TV personality Xavier Lopez “Chavelo,” who has a supporting role opposite Eugenio Derbez in the Opening Film “The Mongolian Conspiracy” directed by Sebastian del Amo (“Cantinflas,” “El mundo fantastico de Juan Orol”).

Since the beginning, the festival has given many Latin American personalities recognition with the “Tree of Life” Award.

Omar Chaparro, Martha Higadera. Photo Jose Hermosillo.

This year, Guadalajara honors the work of actress/producer Martha Higadera (“Street Kings,” “Altered Carbon,” “No Manches Frida”). There is also a well-deserved recognition to Omar Chaparro (“Overboard,” “Pulling Strings”) for his participation in films in Mexico and the USA.

Damian Alcazar. Photo Jose Hermosillo

Actor Damian Alcazar (“The Chronicles of Narnia, Prince Caspian,” “Herod’s Law,” “Forgotten,” “Cronicas”) will receive his “Tree of Life” Award as well.

Press Conference at the Mexican Consulate of Los Angeles.

The festival has a unique WIP Latino program, which gives economic incentives to the post-production stage of feature films and documentaries. WIP helps talented filmmakers to finish their projects. 

We also hope to focus more on outreach for Distribution Deals and have a fair share of Latino-themed films for movie theaters in the USA. For more information about this program, e-mail info.industria@ficg.mx.

We highly recommend the 8^th Edition of FICG in LA because this year, the program has many exceptional films worth your time.

Tipsheet: FICGinLA
When: Oct 26-29

Where: Opening Night, Egyptian Theater, Hollywood, 

Screenings: TCL Chinese 6, 

Shorts Showcase: Mexican Consulate. 

English subtitles.

PROGRAM: http://www.ficginla.com/

TO ACCESS OUR INTERACTIVE FILM FESTIVAL CALENDAR FROM YOUR MOBILE PHONE, CLICK AT THE END: View web version. 

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Festival in LA ©2018

Olvidados/Forgotten: A Powerful Political Story Untold Until Now

By José Alberto Hermosillo

A well-crafted artistic composition with beautiful scenery, set against the pain, remorse, and human toll of the repression era in Latin America, known as “Plan Condor.”

A story that was censored for decades, silenced by forced silence, now comes to light in a major motion picture.

“Olvidados” was the Bolivian submission for the 87th Academy® Awards for Best Foreign Film.

A phone call from New York to Bolivia triggers flashbacks of a dying general. His turbulent past haunts him—from his CIA military training to the era of repression. These abuses of power, torture, executions, and enforced disappearances became a human tragedy across all of South America in the 1970s.

Those were the golden years of the Cold War, when the USA fought against the Soviet Union’s communist penetration in Latin America.

Copyright © Cinema Libre Studio, 2015

In the big picture, the US intentionally turned a blind eye to the dictatorial regimes that committed crimes against humanity in Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Brazil. These countries were fertile ground for such atrocities.

Copyright © Cinema Libre Studio, 2015

The casualty counts were in the thousands. The extraordinary reconstruction of the settings of the Repression Era in “Los Olvidados” shows in detail how these crimes were committed, the impunity and lack of remorse, and recreates the dark atmosphere of its mysterious past. 

Damián Alcázar (“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”) is a chameleon actor who has played victim roles in films such as “Herod’s Law/La Ley de Herodes,” “El Infierno,” and “The Perfect Dictatorship/La dictadura perfecta.” He now plays the magnanimous General José Mendieta in “Olvidados.” Damián Alcázar also plays the bad guy terrifically.

D. Carlos Bolado. Photo by José Alberto Hermosillo.

Director Carlos Bolado (“Bajo California, el límite del tiempo,” “Tlatelolco, Verano de 68,” “Colosio, el asesinato”) assembled an artistic composition of beautiful images and strong performances. Still, it also shows the pain of victims, oppressors, and their families.

Bolado states in an interview: “Reality is worse than fiction,” meaning it’s almost impossible to write or depict the tragedy of Operación Condor in a movie.

The camera captures the beauty but remains rigid and stiff, creating an unnecessary claustrophobic effect in the film, leaving us to wonder what will happen next, yet nothing else does.

The editing lost its tempo; it needed to be organic, logical, and balanced, with a better structure, to make the sequences more harmonious and create a significant impact on the situations of agony experienced by the main characters. A stronger dramatic punch was needed.

Copyright © Cinema Libre Studio 2015

There are similar films on the subject of repression and torture, including the Argentinean Oscar winner “The Secret in Their Eyes” (2009), the brutal Argentinean film “Garage Olimpo” (1999), directed by Marco Bechis, and the Mexican production “The Violin” (2005), directed by Francisco Vargas. All of these films reflect the hunger people have for justice and for those atrocities to be recognized.

 

The most significant accomplishment of “Olvidados” is its strong message about how people lived and died, and how the very few lucky ones survived the repression caused by the absurd policies implemented by the Condor Operation.

 

“Olvidados” left a feeling of emptiness and desolation in people’s hearts for the lost ones, especially for “los desaparecidos…"

Olvidados Tráiler:

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