Ofelia Medina has lived in 53 years of career different stages of Mexican cinema. From the one who confronted and portrayed social changes to the one who today seeks to get ahead after the pandemic.
Tonight, the Mexican Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences will recognize his career and his contributions to national cinema with the Ariel de Oro, an award that represents a contrast of emotions, as it arrives a few weeks after saying goodbye to his mother.
“When I received the news I was in Mérida. I was visiting my mother who by then was very close to death. So knowing about Ariel and that my mother would soon travel to infinity made me an inner revolution. The beautiful thing is that she reached to know it and she was very happy. So receiving the award is a great encouragement from the community and from my mother who got to know it. ”
The Ariel de Oro will carry a special dedication to his mother, as it was she who instilled in him a love for the arts and life. “And I have worked a lot for this,” he says. “It is the product of the effort and work of many people. So he was pleased, I hoped that it would make me stronger and encourage me to work more.”
MACHISMO IS LATENT
Ofelia Medina’s film career began in 1968 with Pax, a film directed by German filmmaker Wolf Rilla that he made at a key time in national history.
“It was a moment of true social transformation,” recalls the actress about the time. “The movements that took place affected the whole world, not just our country. Young people and women took our place in history from then on.”
At that time, she says, there were few women involved in directing, writing, or any other area of production largely dominated by men. “In my beginnings I only worked as an actress, because there have always been those, the only thing missing was no!”.
She ran into machismo head-on when she decided to do her first job as a director, the documentary short Dreams are built. “I found opposition, disbelief and aggression from men: ‘Oh, how? You direct? No, no, you do it very badly, how do you think of it?'” Were some of the comments he heard.
The actress celebrates that those times have changed, because she recognizes that in the industry the presence of female talent has increased considerably.
“And that has come to enrich and complete the vision of Mexican cinema because before it was only a masculine one. It is wonderful to see now directors and producers who also follow, like Bertha Navarro, a forerunner of the participation of women. That is wonderful to celebrate in these times”.
PRESENT DOCUMENTARY
The negative comments he received when he wanted to direct today are out of date. On October 3 it will premiere at the 36th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival The carried and the brought.
It is a documentary that captures the ritual cycle of the Lady of Expectation of Zapopan, also known as the Virgin of Zapopan, a project that took more than two years to carry out.
“It is a monumental film because it portrays a monumental event. It is a larger production than that of the 007, because nobody has had 30 thousand dancers and two million people making a pilgrimage of an image that measures 34 centimeters, “he says.
The project, which took eight months of research and more than a year to edit, was carried out in collaboration with the producer Begoña Lecumberri and the editor Claudia de Berardinis. “We filmed from May 20 to October 12 the most important visits that the Virgin makes. The visit to Chapala, Tonalá, Tlaquepaque, the Mercado de San Juan and traditional neighborhoods of Guadalajara.”
BEYOND FRIDA
Ofelia Medina will be recognized by the AMACC thanks to her acting work in key films of the national cinema such as Frida, living nature, for which she received the Ariel for Best Actress in 1983; you innocents and Good herbs, which gave her two other awards in the shortlist for Best Female Co-performance and The change, for which she was again nominated for this same award.
Her career is also made up of works as a screenwriter, producer and above all an activist, because, as she says, “I make films when I have the opportunity.”
Through the Trust for the Health of Indigenous Children of Mexico (found on Facebook as FISANIM AC), the first actress has been linked with indigenous and human rights organizations to promote the right to food and health of indigenous children from Mexico.
“My life was actually spent between a set and the mountains in the communities of Oaxaca, Chiapas and Guerrero. I have a foundation (FISANIM AC) in which we work for indigenous children. Today, only in Chiapas, there are more than 10,000 displaced “.
Ofelia Medina will obtain the Ariel de Oro as well as the Mexican sound engineer Fernando Cámara. The awards of the 63rd edition of the Ariel organized by the Academy
Mexicana de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográfica will be delivered tonight in a special program that Channel 22 will broadcast at 9:00 p.m.
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