About to celebrate its 27th anniversary, the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF) has been characterized by carrying the vision of the thousands of filmmakers who have crossed its screens with works that surpass the boundaries of geography and the conceptual. Since then, the vision of this cinematographic event —to be held this year from July 19 to 28 in the cities of León, San Miguel de Allende and Irapuato— lies in the importance of renewing itself and applying innovative strategies. For this reason, they have assumed the commitment to serve new audiences, adopt new technologies and take into account all the areas involved in the cinematographic universe.
According to its director and co-founder, Sarah Hoch, this new edition will focus on virtual reality and quantum computing. The exhibition focused on virtual reality will present 16 films, including two Mexican productions. GAWIwhat does it mean Mother Earth In Rarámuri, it is an experience created by Myriam Alejandra Hernández Vázquez, Isabel Monarca Cruz and Lorenzo Moreno Pajarito, together with inhabitants of this indigenous town in northern Mexico. According to the synopsis, the 10-minute short film offers an intimate experience of what a Rarámuri state of mind and soul can feel like. The experience follows a dreamlike narrative that unfolds to the rhythm of a poem that celebrates indigenous ecological wisdom to heal the Earth and oneself.
The other, Floating with spirits (Floating with the Spirits) —by Juanita Onzaga—, a co-production with Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, immerses the viewer, for 31 minutes, in the preparations for the Day of the Dead of two little indigenous sisters, while they remember the ancestral knowledge and mystical cosmogony that their shaman grandmother shared with them in the misty mountains of Oaxaca. The show is shared by 14 other films from countries such as Peru, Romania, Lithuania, Taiwan and South Korea, to name a few.
“Rethinking and re-envisioning a film in 360 takes you out of your comfort zone as a filmmaker. It opens our minds, our language, the possibilities of telling stories, and enriches our creative experience. It broadens our perspective and the possibility of telling stories in many ways. GIFF is about that, opening and jumping barriers to try to broaden our vision as creatives and as spectators,” Hoch said over the phone.
If one of the topics of the last edition was artificial intelligence, this time the focus will be on the topic of quantum computing, a multidisciplinary field that combines aspects of computer science, physics and mathematics and uses quantum mechanics to solve complex problems faster than classical computers, and, therefore, algorithms and their scope.
The GIFF seeks to give free rein to questioning what implications this technological revolution has on filmmaking, questions that will seek answers in conferences such as that of the Chinese businessman and writer Alvin Wang Graylin, expert in the development of new technologies and author of best seller Our next reality (Our next reality). He will give a lecture of the same name about the evolutionary leap that this development comprises and its connection with the audiovisual world and industry. He will also be accompanied and complemented by the Swiss expert Daniela Hermann, who will offer the talk “Democratization of neuromorphic quantum computing”.
“There is a race between Russia, the United States and China to get this technology out. It is an energy based on the possibility of carrying out activities 1,000 times faster than what technology allows us now. We are talking about that fragile relationship, that line that is going to turn gray, between the machine and the human being, which reminds us of the movies sci-fi “With visions that seem crazy, abstract and impossible. Knowledge is power and we have to know what is coming in order to make decisions in favor of humanity,” Hoch adds.
![A painting of 'Floating with Spirits'.](https://imagenes.elpais.com/resizer/v2/UVOY4DGMPVBEDNAOP5632GPJYE.jpeg?auth=781d01dae522d1ea4359fc12a0c503a2784ed65b3d405d42b477db5f5038d711&width=414)
“The first window of Mexican cinema”
GIFF was founded in 1998 by Hoch and Ernesto Herrera. It emerged in the midst of an acute crisis for the national film industry, as only nine Mexican feature films were produced that year, the lowest number of films since 1932. Its first focus was on short films, known as the Expresión en Corto International Film Festival, until 2006, when it opened up to feature films and became what the festival is today and what it has defended since its inception: “being the first window to Mexican cinema,” says its director.
Guanajuato and its three venues will embrace summer with the screening of 192 films, of which 157 are in the Official Selection in Competition and 16 are world premieres. This version will feature an important list of Mexican films in competition that fuse reality and fiction, offering outstanding examples of creativity and talent from national filmmakers, with 34 films being shown on a national screen for the first time. Likewise, 22 titles will be screened in the Short Film Mexico category and 13 in the Official Selection Guanajuato. Some of the titles present are the documentary After the weaponsby director Héctor Laso and journalist Denise Maerker, which recovers the testimonies of former Zapatista militiamen to recount the experience within the indigenous uprising of January 1, 1994.
Another one to mention is The muleteera story of adventure, sexual awakening and identity, directed by Isabel Cristina Fregoso, which introduces Emilia, who falls madly in love with her cousin, but a sexist society in Jalisco in the last century confronts her and forces her to become a muleteer. The film won two Mezcal awards at the Guadalajara Film Festival for best direction and photography.
The GIFF also extends its stems and, faithful to its tradition, seeks to show realities from other parts of the world with eight films from 20 countries, among which stand out: Explanation for Everythingchosen as Best Film in the Orizzonti section at the Venice Film Festival and Brief History of a Familyan official selection of festivals such as the Berlinale and Sundance; and which is also part of the filmography of China, the guest country of honour at this edition. A careful selection of films will also be screened, including Black Dogwinning film of the section A certain regard at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival.
Ripstein, Cosío and a triple tribute to female talent
In the section of guests and tributes, one of the most important directors of the national film industry, Arturo Ripstein, will be honored in León with the Más Cine silver award and the UNAM Film Library Medal, one of the most important awards given by this higher education institution. Critical, sordid and transgressive, a living legend, author of works such as The castle of purity (1972), The empire of fortune (1985) and The devil between the legs (2019), will have a conversation with director Roberto Fiesco and will be part of the presentation of his book Decalogue (of and about) Arturo Ripstein in San Miguel de Allende.
Hoch, pleased to have Ripstein among the honorees, said it was the third time and the charm. “I have invited him three times over the years. The first time was in the 15th edition and then I think in the 20th. The first time he said to me: ‘don’t pay tribute to me, give me a digital camera. I’m going to make films, it’s not my turn yet’. This year we spoke to him in advance and he replied: ‘now yes, Sarah, I accept. Let’s hurry up because I’m already 80 years old’. We are very excited that we are going to celebrate in a big way,” adds the director.
Another who will be awarded for his career will be Joaquín Cosío, who will receive the Silver Cross for More Cinema and the UNAM Film Library Medal in Irapuato. He began his work in the theater until he became known in the cinema for characters such as Mascarita, from Killing Cabosand El Cochiloco, from Hellas well as productions in Hollywood such as his participation in Narcos: Mexico. The actor, who will premiere his most recent film The price of educating them, will share his professional experience in a master class, moderated by director Emilio Portes.
GIFF will also pay triple tribute to the work of women who have fought for visibility and recognition, far from patterns of violence and with the construction of environments of sisterhood ahead. Actress Adriana Paz, recently recognized in Cannes for best actress for her work in Emilia Perez; Claudia Ramírez, who has participated in highly successful soap operas, series and films such as Mirreyes against Godinez and the socially-minded screenwriter and director Marina Stavenhagen, who has been behind stories like Of the streetwill be the recipients of this recognition.
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