This excessive ambition. It is the title of a documentary production and a phrase that can summarize the rise of Antón Álvarez Alfaro, a Spanish rapper, singer and composer born 34 years ago in Madrid, better known by his stage name as C. Tangana. Born on the scene underground of the urban music of his country until its consolidation with what was The Madrid native (2021), a conceptual album considered a masterpiece, totally heterogeneous and mixed, which has taken it to stages around the world. After the success of the aforementioned record album, the artist faces the challenge of creating the most ambitious tour of his career and revolutionizing the concept of live performances.
The project thus becomes a journey that follows C. Tangana for more than four years, from the creation of the album in Cuba to the conceptualization of the show, the complexity of the negotiations, the rehearsals, the uncomfortable conversations, the most intimate celebrations. and the whirlwind of concerts throughout Spain and Latin America. The look at the experience within the musical experience, pardon the redundancy, directed by Santos Bacana, Rogelio González (II) and Cristina Trenas, will give the opening shot to raise the curtain and turn on the projectors of the International Film Festival in Guadalajara (FICG), which in this 39th edition, to be held from June 7 to 15, will feature premieres and renowned guests in a showcase with more than 200 films that include filmography from Mexico, Europe and the rest of the American continent.
In 2023, the festival had 50,000 attendees, almost 3,000 accredited people, 242 projections and 22 screens. Of the 194 films that were shown, 95 were films in competition (54 feature films and 41 short films). With these figures from the previous edition, the main goal of this version is to surpass those numbers. This year alone, 41 million pesos were invested in the budget. Despite the efforts of the FICG organization, the film industry is emerging from a six-year period in which relations with the Executive of Andrés Manuel López Obrador were not the best, due to the cuts made to the cultural sector. Estrella Araiza, director of the festival, affirms that film dissemination spaces like the one in Guadalajara are going through a “serious moment” and she regrets that culture is not being observed as an area of opportunity, but as an expense. “That’s definitely sad,” she notes.
“There are many other parts of the industry that are flourishing. Every year there are new producers, new directors, operaprimistas who are making movies. That is indicative of a healthy cultural and film industry. But they are leaving aside exhibition spaces such as festivals. One of our tasks is to defend cinema from the algorithms of commercial cinema,” he adds.
Now with the official results of the presidential elections – which gave victory to candidate Claudia Sheinbaum – it is important for the FICG organization to be able to have a relationship with the new projects of the next Government, especially with the idea of decentralizing cultural management in Mexico and that goes beyond the usual epicenter, which is the capital. “We can make the effort to go [a dialogar] “If we are part of the conversation, because obviously we are not going to go anywhere,” claims Araiza, given that outside the film circuits, such as Guadalajara, it has been difficult for the national box office to recover the space that the film had. Mexican cinema.
“Just during the pandemic, it happened that the films that received contributions for production were reduced a lot. Already half of the films produced are financed by platforms. They are not films with new authorial voices, which are the ones that will create new narratives for us in the future, they are from executives. I think it is still a long way to go, because recovering from this crisis, festivals, productions and independent cinema is going to be very complicated,” he adds.
International and national offer
Even with the uncertain situation, which in recent years has led to the cancellation of other film spaces such as the Fénix Awards or the Los Cabos Film Festival, the director of the FICG knows that the show must go on. That is why the selection of this year’s exhibition stands out. “We had a lot of difficulty reaching some of the resolutions. I think that’s exactly what makes this year’s competition so rich. We have a lot of diversity within each of the competencies,” says the director.
The behind-the-scenes documentary about C. Tangana will have its Latin American premiere at the festival’s opening gala, while director Yorgos Lanthimos’ most recent film, Kind of Kidness, will close the event. Just a few months after Poor Things (2023), his previous project that received four Oscar awards from the American Academy, the Greek director returns with a fable in the form of a triptych that tells three stories: that of a trapped man who tries to take the reins of his own life; that of a policeman terrified because his wife, who had disappeared at sea, has returned and looks like a different person; and that of a woman determined to find someone with a special gift, destined to become a prodigious spiritual leader.
To these two titles, other projections are added such as hit man, the new comedy by American Richard Linklater, with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona; or the second part of the Pixar animated film Inside Out 2. Guadalajara will continue to preserve the tradition of presenting itself as one of the showcases for the appreciation, dissemination, promotion and distribution of Mexican and Ibero-American cinema. Mexican fiction They will not move us, by Pierre Saint Martin, a film that won three awards at the Toulouse Latin Film Festival in France, will have its premiere in the country. A film about forgiveness and revenge, set against the events of October 2, 1968 in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, 55 years after that fateful day.
Also the documentaries after the weapons, directed by Héctor Laso and produced by journalist Denise Maerker, which collects the testimonies of former Zapatista militiamen 30 years after the EZLN uprising; either silent stateby Santiago Maza, about the siege of four journalists, researchers and victims of Mexican narcopolitics, after two decades of unbridled violence due to the so-called war on drugs —produced by Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal—, will be in competition alongside other productions for the Mezcal Prize, which awards the Mayahuel statuette and 500,000 pesos to the majority production company that won the award for Best Mexican Film.
Mayahuel de Plata to the career
Likewise, this year it will have the Community of Madrid as a guest of honor, so not only Spanish cinema will be present, but also some of its references, such as Álex de la Iglesia, who in the nineties established himself as one of the references of his country and that will be recognized with the international Mayahuel and with the screening of some of his most representative films such as The Day of the Beast either sad trumpet balladto mention a few.
Others honored during the FICG will be the filmmaker Ángeles Cruz, in recognition of her activism in favor of indigenous peoples and language preservation; the Chilean actor Alfredo Castro, for his career in the Latin American theater and film scene; and also, perhaps the most important of this edition, the Mexican Diego Luna, who will receive the Silver Mayahuel for lifetime achievement in Mexican cinema at the closing gala ceremony. Nominated for the Golden Globe, part of the universe of Star Wars, with more than 30 films produced in Mexico, Spain, the United States, England and Germany, with directors such as Alfonso Cuarón, Steven Spielberg and Gus van Sant; In addition to having ventured as a director and producer himself, he will have the spotlight with a series of activities throughout the festival.
“The tribute to Diego Luna gives me a lot of emotion. I and many who live in Mexico have followed his career from its beginnings to his leap abroad in this effort to become an international artist. He has never stopped being present in Mexico. It is very exciting that we are going to be able to honor him,” says Araiza.
The 39th edition of the Guadalajara Film Festival also continues with its eye on exploring new narratives, such as video games and their cinematographic possibilities. The industry sector will have the challenge of making this platform seen as an opportunity to tell stories, while expanding its range with projects created for television, with spaces for series that are in search of platforms for their realization. With almost 40 years of experience, the festival “of everyone and for everyone” has not lost focus since its creation: celebrating cinema as an industry, entertainment and seventh art.
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