Raúl Padilla: A Pioneer of Cinema and Entertainment in Jalisco

If Jalisco is an epicenter of culture and entertainment at an international level, it is largely due to the vision that Raúl Padilla had to develop important projects such as the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) and the Guadalajara International Film Festival. (FICG).

In addition to promoting important buildings that have become temples of artistic expression such as the Telmex Auditorium, the Santander Performing Arts Group, the FICG Cineteca, the Juan José Arreola Public Library, the Plaza del Bicentenario and other spaces that encompass what is the University Cultural Center.

The FICG has been a wide window for leading industry experts and emerging values ​​to commune in the same place where the public also has a close participation. And Raúl Padilla knew how to connect key figures so that the film festival be the movie party that all filmmakers, actors and producers want to attend.

The 38th edition, where the guest of honor will be Italy, will take place from June 3 to 9 of this year, where we will have to wait and see what the tribute that the film festival pays to Raúl, who was precisely the president of the FICG board of trustees, will consist of. which is responsible for the execution of all contracts, agreements and projects that are related to the organization of the festival.

Raúl was very hand in hand with important figures to encourage the offer of cinema in Jalisco, for example, with Guillermo del Toro, who has always been a fundamental support for this film festival, the winner of several Oscars has been from the beginning to this news where the FICG is an internationally recognized event. Through its ranks have appeared other prominent figures such as Alfonso Cuaron, Salma Hayek, Eva Longoria, Antonio Bandera, Gael Garcia, Diego Luna and Willem Dafoe, among others.

In addition, the FICG also has its Cineteca where both auteur films and commercials are exhibited, where the Cineforo, which has a long history and is one of the most emblematic places of the Guadalajara scene, joins the varied and wide with film cycles too.

In the field of show forums and entertainment, Raúl Padilla opted for iconic places where all artistic expressions take place, for example, the Telmex Auditorium stands out, which was the first building with which the development of the University Cultural Center was promoted. With a constructed area of ​​31 thousand square meters and with the capacity to accommodate from 2,658 to 9,163 people in the hall, it was inaugurated on September 1, 2007. Its design was carried out by José de Arimathea Moyao.

The forum has hosted important national and international artists such as: Plácido Domingo, Ennio Morricone, the Ballet of the Teatro de la Scala in Milanthe Bolshoi, the Kirov, the Kiev, Dimitri Hvorostovsky, as well as pop culture concerts such as those by Katy Perry, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Fernández and Ringo Starr, among others.

In addition, the Telmex Auditorium has been nominated as the best international theater since 2008 and occupies one of the first places as a venue for shows according to Pollstar magazine with the capacity to host large productions, it is not for nothing that it is a show center that everyone Guadalajara or tourist, wants to go.

One of the most recent forums, but one of great manufacturing and technology, is the Santander Ensemble of Performing Arts, of which Raúl Padilla, since its creation was underway, has been very close, always highlighting its technical, acoustic and production capacities.

Inaugurated on October 21, 2017 with an Opera and Zarzuela Gala night by the tenor and conductor Plácido Domingo and a select group of winners of the Operalia contest, and with the company of the hundred-year-old Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra, since then, this property has been a benchmark in the cultural life of Jalisco where figures such as the international Isaac Hernández and Tamara Rojo from Guadalajara of the English National Ballet, and shows of the stature of “Rocco”, presented by the National Ballet of Marseille, France, and the tribute to Tomaz Pandur with the productions “Fausto” and “Immaculate”, have been part of the billboard.

The Santander Performing Arts Complex has an area of ​​52 thousand square meters. The main room, Plácido Domingo, has a capacity for 1,700 spectators, which houses orchestral music, opera, classical dance and large-format theater shows.

Room 2 has a capacity for 930 people, this space is oriented towards theater, contemporary dance and chamber music. A third room for 430 attendees covers the needs of local, national and foreign experimental production, since it is directed primarily to the theater. And a more experimental space is Room 4, with 200 seats, ideal for small-format theater that highlights the proximity of the public to the actor, ideal for monologues, clowns, cabaret, puppets and stand up.

FS