TRAVEL – Morelia International Film Festival

By Catherine Krantz

There is a prevailing notion among the pragmatic and the steadfast that movies are frivolous, a silly romanticized version of reality. One who “watches too many movies” is thought to be unrealistic and over-ly sentimental with excessively romantic notions about life, one who sits in the dark and dreams (but really what’s wrong with that?).

For thousands of years it was the telling of stories that defined human progress, told us who we were and taught us how to be. Stories are what recorded our presence on this earth. So how could being too immersed in stories and storytelling be a bad thing? Seems to me it’s a fine tradition—an art worthy of study and rhapsodic praise—and for three days in October I got to sit in the dark with people who agree.

French filmmaker Dominique Jonard has lived in Mexico since 1977 and says he owes “a cultural debt to Michoacan,” and his ongoing attempts to re-pay it have most recently culminated in a wonderful animated short film called “Hapunda.” The story is based upon the indigenous Purépecha legend of Princess Hapunda who swears to stay near Lake Patzcuaro forever. This charming animated short was screened at the third annual Morelia International Film Festival, held October 8 – 16, 2005, in Morelia, Michoacan, where international filmmakers came from across Mexico and the world for a week of international cinema.

“The heart of the festival,” says FICM (Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia) Director Daniela Michel, “are the short films and the documentaries.” The sole purpose of the festival is to get them on the screen, give them a chance to be seen. In addition to the short films and documentaries which were in competition, the festival also hosted a week full of programs, events and films: screenings specific to invited guests Raul Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento; an homage to Stella Inda; short films of host state Michoacan; educational conferences; special functions; and screenings of international feature length films with selections from the Cannes Film Festival International Critic’s Week.

My personal favorite film and the most international of my experiences was Cannes International Critics Week selection, “A Stranger of Mine.” It is the first feature-length film of director Uchida Kenji and a delightfully refreshing comedy or errors with multiple overlapping stories. Filmed in Japan and originally shown at Cannes, it was in Japanese with French subtitles and secondary subtitles were projected below the screen in Spanish, but amazingly we all still managed to get the jokes. It felt a true expression of international art: three different languages are telling the story yet everyone is laughing at the same time.

“This is a festival that supports cinema from the heart,” said American director Ira Sachs. Sachs’ film “Forty Shades of Blue” won Grand Prize at the Sundance film festival earlier this year and he was in attendance at both screenings of his film in Morelia. This trip was his first to Mexico and Sachs was greatly impressed with the FICM: “the best thing about this festival is that it supports local talent, it shows films from Mexico about Mexico, you are very lucky to have this festival.” His film was equally enthusiastically received by Morelia. “Forty Shades of Blue” is a touching, ambiguous and slightly depressing tale of an unhappy marriage and exactly the type of film you’d expect to win Sundance, where quiet heavy films seem to rule.

Not so, in Morelia, where the winners tended toward the light and the loud. I went to the screening of the short film winners and probably shouldn’t have. There is something comforting in the absurd fantasy that like-minded people will think like-mindedly and given the choice we’d all probably just agree, and yet something just totally disconcerting about the realization that, that is just not true.

Occasional short film silliness aside, FICM provided a truly impressive array of films, a very wide selection from a diverse group of filmmakers of many varying capabilities and a prestigious international event attended by film lovers and industry notables. And although movie stars were in attendance and were spotted on the red carpet and signing autographs at breakfast on the zocalo, the festival still remains a truly accessible event, reasonable prices, great location and warmly welcoming. A great place to spend a weekend and now only four hours away, Morelia is host to innumerable annual cultural events like the FICM, so even though October is my favorite time to go, anytime is a good time to visit our pretty colonial neighbor to the north.

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