Ciudad Juárez attracted four internationally distributed film productions that are filming on the border simultaneously.
This film boom is generating employment for actors, designers, audiovisual artists, industrial designers, as well as an economic spillover for the hotel industry, catering businesses, transport companies and owners of rental properties such as Airbnb, a situation that has not occurred for more than 15 years.
Approximately 200 people in the local film industry will benefit.
This week, Film Commissioner Daniel Ikaichi Baca Tuda issued a call for the entire border film community to get involved, as there is a lot of work ahead for the local industry.
“Virtually all the local production companies are involved, the rental houses, the crew, photography talent, the art department, practically all the departments, even in casting, where we have one of our great talents from Ciudad Juárez: Yeraldine Balcázar, who is coordinating it,” said Ángel Benítez, film producer.
Benítez is currently part of the work team of the producer of the film “Huesera”, Edher Campos, although for production purposes, the name of the film cannot yet be revealed.
The Juarez native, who has been involved in the city’s film industry for approximately 15 years, said that it had never been seen that such important national films were filmed here at the same time, since the four productions will take place during the last four months of the year.
The producer is also part of the organizing team of the Hidden Horror and Fantasy Film Festival that brings productions from other parts of the Republic.
“In the last five years or so, there have been 15 productions, 12 from outside and three feature films produced in Juárez, and the fact that there are now four at the same time is a significant event for the film industry here,” he said.
Since last week, the team of film director Kenya Márquez, originally from Guadalajara but based in Mexico City, has been filming. She was nominated for an Ariel Award, an award that recognizes the best of Mexican cinema.
“This is my first personal film, it is part of a trilogy that I began filming in Guadalajara with ‘Fecha de Caducciónd’, and then it was ‘Asfixia’, and this is the third part that we are filming here; the intention was to tell stories that start from a female point of view, from three characters that go through the different stages of a woman’s life,” she said in an interview with El Diario.
Something hopeful
The film, titled “Wanted,” he said, is about how one comes to terms with loss, regardless of where one is.
The story is about a woman who lives in Mexico City and makes a trip up north to Ciudad Juarez, she said.
“It was very important for me to have a contrast with what Mexico City is, because I live there, and for me it is something immense; and Ciudad Juárez seemed very interesting to me, precisely because of its characteristics in terms of geography, its aridity, its climate, which makes it a border city with a very particular beauty,” he said.
The film serves as a denunciation of the gender violence experienced by women in Mexico.
“It is a mixture of denunciation, of this relationship between Mexico and the United States, and for better or worse, it has repercussions being neighbors, of how one goes through a desolation when it is a city with losses, and I say this also for my city, Guadalajara, which is one of the cities with the most missing people,” she said. “It was about telling something hopeful from the point of view of a young girl.”
This production has a team of 60 people, including citizens from the border.
“I am from the provinces and the truth is that it is very difficult to leave there and make films and cinema, and I felt that it was very important to leave the capital and come here and do it with people from Juárez,” he said, explaining the reason why this production is being made in the city.
Yeraldín Balcázar, originally from the border, acts as casting director for Kenya Márquez and casting coordinator for Edher Campos.
“We need 20 characters from Ciudad Juárez, plus extras,” he said.
The Juarez native, who participates in several of the productions, studied at the Autonomous University of Baja California and graduated with a degree in Audiovisual Media.
Balcázar has participated in productions such as the “Luis Miguel” series, and the film “Bardo” by director Alejandro González Iñárritu, as well as “La Máquina”, directed by Gabriel Ripstein and starring Gael García and Diego Luna.
“It is more likely that the assistants will hire them in the city, it depends on the productions, that is how it usually happens, they are giving jobs to people from Juarez,” he said.
And he said: “There are a lot of characters plus the extras that are needed for the productions.”
These films will be screened in some of the movie theaters in Mexico, he explained, and not only on platforms such as Netflix.
‘Se Busca’, a film that addresses how losses are assumed, is one of the projects
“It is a mixture of denunciation, of this Mexico-United States relationship, and for better or worse, being neighbors has repercussions, of how one navigates a desolation when it is a city with losses.”
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