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| Graphic by Rebecca Straughmatt
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Film fest to explore Mexican women directors
Brittney Bigler
Mesa Legend
The second annual Mesa Community
College International Film Festival will once again take main stage
at Pollack Tempe Cinemas.
The event is sponsored by MCC and co-sponsored by the Tempe Pollack
Cinemas, the Cinecteca Nacional de Mexico and the chapter of Women
in Film and Television International.
This year’s festival is being put on in celebration of Mexican
women directors, and their impact in the film industry, as well
as bringing awareness to the real Mexican culture.
Last year’s festival also featured women directors including
two who traveled from Iran, as well as one who traveled from Sweden,
just for the event.
“The festival is truly something special and these women have
realized its significance,” said Festival Director Don Castro,
an English professor at MCC.
This year’s festival features six Mexican women directors.
MCC will be the host to an appearance and lecture at the MCC Library
in the Reading Room by Ana Cruz Navaro, who is the president of
the Mexico chapter of WIFT (Women in Film and Television).
Other appearances include Mario Navaro, Eva Lopez Sanchez, Marcela
Fernandez Violante, Jose Buil, and Marisa Sistach.
These women have directed more than 34 films collectively in a male
dominated country, as well as industry. It’s a great accomplishment
that these women have been so successful, including many that have
received national and international award as around the world, commented
Castro.
According to the AHC General Grant, one of the main goals of the
festival is to provide our audience experiences of life in Mexico—especially
through the eyes of women—thereby promoting a better understanding
of Mexican history, culture, language, and people.
Castro also commented that “the movies with women dealing
with issues in their society and culture is definitely a part of
the focus of the festival, but it is not the sum total of the films.
They are diverse in content as well as genre.”
The films that will be shown include storylines from a spy thriller,
to a romance as well as a heartfelt documentary about a true Mexican
family.
Four of the films are the most recent films of the directors.
“This is not Hollywood, Mexicans aren’t afraid of an
unhappy ending, they don’t feel the need to always look through
rose colored glasses,” said Castro.
“Many American’s think that what they see at the border
is Mexico, and that every Mexican wants to live in the U.S. Those
ideas are simply not true. There are middle, poor and professional
class Mexicans.”
These women are out to show the rest of the world the reality of
their culture and people, Castro also commented.
Admission is free, however limited seating available. The films
and events will run April 2-14.
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