The program, with more than 30 screenings per edition, presented a selection of creative works of independent artists not seen before in the Netherlands, which included artists such as Carlos Bolado (Bajo California), Lucía Gajá (Mi vida Adentro), Michel Franco (Daniel y Ana), Everardo González (La canción del pulque), Gerardo Naranjo (Voy a Explorar), Carlos Reygadas (Japón), Enrique Rivero (Parque Vía) and Daniela Schneider (Pescador), among many others. Guests of the festival included of Cannes Golden Palm Winner Elisa Miller (Ver llover), film critic Carlos Bonfil, and filmmaker Yolanda Cruz, the latter as part of a program about the meaning and evolution of indigenous cinema.
The video art program at the Netherlands Media Art Institute addressed the blurring frontier between fiction and reality in Mexico, and featured works of, among other, Artemio, Julieta Aranda, Carlos Amorales, Miguel Calderón, Teresa Margolles and Yoshua Okon. The exhibitions included a selection of photographs linked to a film retrospective of celebrated cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa (1908-1997), who helped to define the iconography of the golden age of Mexican cinema. This retrospective included masterworks like Luis Buñuel’s
Nazarin
and Roberto Gavaldón’s
Macario.
As part of its commitment to stimulate young creative talent, the festival launched a Dutch-Mexican creative exchange with screen-writers with the support of among other the Binger Filmlab and Pimienta Films. The exchange challenged participants to develop a script based on a Mexican myth, legend or tradition and to make a film proposal based on the script.
Here you can download the festival’s catalogue of activities 2005, 2007 and
2009.
