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October 11, 2024 – 22:24
Mexico City, Oct 11 (EFE).- With 12 films about the indigenous and Afro-descendant peoples of Mexico, various filmmakers seek to talk about racism, identity and representation on the big screen, according to what they said this Friday at the start of the first Traveling Show of Cinema for Identity (MI CINE), which will last until November in several states of the country.
Eight feature films and four short films make up the traveling circuit that will tour various communities in Puebla, Veracruz, Morelos, the State of Mexico, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Jalisco, with outdoor screenings.
On the other hand, the exhibition will be screened in 45 theaters in the states of Veracruz, State of Mexico, Oaxaca, Guerrero and Jalisco, starting with Mexico City, at the Casa del Cine.
Carlos Hernández, producer of Mandarina Cine, in charge of the festival, pointed out that this was born from the need and concern to bring cinema “to spaces where there are no cinema screens” and the importance of these films being exhibited in these places.
“This is also complemented by a reality that we need the voices and faces of the great diversity that is our Mexico to be seen and that the people who embody and who are present on those screens are reflected,” he indicated at the event in the Mexican capital.
“It is extremely important for us to raise awareness and dialogue about it, and it is part of what is generated in this exhibition,” he added.
‘Nudo Mixteco’, by director and actress Ángeles Cruz, makes up the list of feature films; along with ‘The Commitment of the Shadows’, by Sandra Luz López; ‘Café’, by Hatuey Viveros; ‘Labyrinth Yoéme’, by Sergi Pedro Ros; and ‘The Woman of Stars and Mountains’, by Santiago Esteindu.
Also shown will be ‘Negra’, by Medhin Tewolde; ‘Mamá’, by Xun Sero, and ‘They made us night’, by José Antonio Hernández, whose directors were present at the inauguration.
A reflection of deep-rooted racism and machismo
Tewolde pointed out that with her first film she seeks to be “a bridge” over the racism and discrimination that many people go through, in addition to shedding light on the realities of Afro-descendant women in Mexico, through five stories, including hers.
«Because not only if you are a black person do you suffer racism. “Most people at some point in our lives have suffered or are suffering discrimination of some kind,” said the director.
Furthermore, she highlighted that “it is no coincidence that all (Afro-Mexican women) go through the same thing.”
Sero, for his part, shared that the central protagonist of his documentary is his mother, and the central theme is machismo, which led him to explore “what it means to be a man in these societies.”
“I think the first feeling I had was guilt, and that guilt, in some way, made me think that, indeed, men should be eradicated from the planet,” she joked, adding that a friend made her see that even “in “That’s sexist thinking.”
The short films in the exhibition are ‘Black Crowns’, by André Fará Briam Lo; ‘Red snapper’, by Cinthya Toledo; ‘Flowers on the plain’, by Mariana Rivera, and ‘The wait’, by Celina Manuel. EFE
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