They took them alive

"Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos" (alive they took them, alive we want them) is a documentary about political dissappearances in 1970´s Monterrey. Mrs. Rosario Ibarra de Piedra (second from right in the photo) is one of the leading activists claiming the return of their sons and loved ones.

Cecilia Serna (last one on the right in the photo) directed the film which is now participating in the VISION SOCIAL section of the Festival. Vision Social (Social Vision) is a section dedicated to films that explores issues relevant to the filmmakers community. It is non competitive because of the nature of the films, which can be shorts, medium length or features, documentary, fiction or a mix of both. The aim is to highlight the positive uses of the medium to better societies and the world. Film (and film festivals) has a responsability to the community, and Visión Social is an effort to acknowledge it.

"Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos" will be playing at MMCinemas Tec, theater 4 on August 17th.

World Shorts

Some fantastic shorts from all over the globe have been selected for this non-competitive section.

Rojeki Bafri
(A Snowy Day)
Director: Hossein Jehani
País: Australia e Irak

Al otro lado del mar
(In the other side of the sea)
Director: Patricia Ortega
País: Venezuela

Bo Kata
Director: Shehzad Afzal
País: Escocia y Pakistan

Men´s Realm
Director: Galina Adamovich
País: Belorusia

Peniskateus
(Penis Envy)
Director: Marjo Viitala
País: Finlandia

Yono y Seo
(Yono and Seo)
Director: Natalia Rega
País: España

Watani Habibi
(My Beloved Homeland)
Director: John Mandelberg
País: Nueva Zelanda y Palestina

Seungbo, Jungin
Director: Joon – hyun Lee
País: República de Coréa

L.A. Noir
Director: Conrado Jackson
País: Estados Unidos

Ghennawa leltear
(A song for the birds)
Director: Atteia Eldardeer
País: Egipto

Pick Up
Director: Manuel Schapira
País: Francia

De Frontera a frontera - From Border to Border

From the Rio Bravo, to Guatemala and Belize, from Baja to Yucatán, Mexico is a country that is diverse, multicultural and rich. From many communities around the country, films sprout from production houses, independent collectives, and strong spirited artists. These films make up De Frontera a Frontera


¿A quién le importa?
Director: Cesar Guevara
País: México

Infierno Grande
Director: Octavio Gasca
País: México

Karma
Director: Fernando Santoyo
País: México

Le passiou du rouge
Director: Alex Aguilera
País: México

La pena de Diego
Director: Martín Gavica
País: México

Lección
Director: Oscar Urrutia
País: México

Término medio
Director: Marco A. Barajas
País: México

Recent Monterrey Cinema Showcase

A collection of recent Monterrey produced shorts.

Chanzas
Director: Erick Fuantoise
País: México

Dos agentes
Director: Gabriel Guzmán
País: México

En el papel
Director: Martin Bautista M.
País: México

Entre líneas
Director: Martin Bautista M.
País: México

Janeth Jamilet
Director: Jorge F. Moreno
País: México

Preludio
Director: Gian Cassini
País: México

Somos diferentes
Director: Alfonso C. Escamilla
País: México

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Social Vision

Social Vision is a selection of films, shorts, medium length and features, that deal with social issues that are relevant to the filmmakers´ communities. It is non-competitive as to maintain the integrity and spirit of the films that make up the selection.


Leaving Transylvania
Director: Dieter Auner
Ireland - Romania

La Joya
Director: Abner Benaim
Panama

El Cajón con alma negra
Director: Claudia Ruíz
Peru - Switzerland

Alcanzando sueños
Director: Beatríz Perez Martin
Spain

Vivos los llevaron, vivos los queremos
(They were taken alive, we want them back alive)
Director: Cecilia Serna
México

Raak me waar ik voelen kan
(Touch me some place I can feel)
Director: Simone de Vries
Netherlands

La Mallorquina – Homenaje en cinco actos
(The Mallorquina - A tribute in five acts)
Director: Enrique Ríos
Switzerland

Alena´s Strawberry Farm
Director: Xiaoxiao Sun
United Kingdom

Antes, um dia e depois
(Earlier, one day and later)
Director: Caio Cavechini
Brazil

Hilmi Shusha Met Meatzmo
(The boy who died of fear)
Director: Idit Avrahami
Israel

Cartoneros
Director: Ernesto Livon-Grosman
Argentina - United States

The New Los Angeles
Director: Lyn Goldfarb
United States

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Short Film Animation

15 shorts. CGI. Hand drawn. Clay. Rotoscope. Many forms and techniques. Always surprising, always touching, always fantastic.


Verschlossen
(Closed)
Director: Albert Radl
Germany

Spegelbarn
(Looking Glass)
Director: Erik Rosenlund
Sweden

El gorrito de Morfeo
Director: Raúl García
México

Voodoo Bayou
Director: Javier Gutiérrez
México

Le pauvre histoire du maraud
(The sad story of knave)
Director: Anne Larricq
France

De la vista nace el amor
(Love at first sight)
Director: Miguel Anaya
México

Broken Wire
Director: Juan C. Mostaza
Spain

Violeta: La pescadora del Mar Negro
Director: Marc Riba y Anna Solanas
Spain

Dog Days
Director: Geoffroy de Crécy
France

Apnée
(Apnee)
Director: Claude Chabot
France

Raymond
Director: Bif
France-United Kingdom

The Children
Director: Chia-Yu Huang
Taiwan

One Rat Short
Director: Alex Weil
United States

Message for the Neighbours
Director: Priit Tender
Estonia

458 NM
Director: Jan Blitzer, Ilija Brunck y Tom Weber
Germany

OFFICIAL SELECTiON - Short Film Documentary

8 short documentaries from the siberian tundra, to a Russian dinner in Mexico City, to the story of a supernatural table in Slovenia. The documentary section is full of surprises.

Yaptik Hasse
(Yaptik Hasse)
Director: Edgar Bartenev
Russia

Small Boy Wanted
Director: Lucy Allwood
France

Praznik
(Celebration)
Director: Masha Kostiurina
México

Confrontation in Cuba
Director: Arto Halonen
Finland

Miza, ki tudi laize
(Table that also tells lies)
Director: Barbare Zemljic
Slovenia

Un dimanche a Pripiat
(A Sunday in Pripyat)
Director: Blandine Huk y Frederic Cousseau
France

Bagher Bachcha
(The Tiger´s Cub)
Director: Bishnu Dev Halder
India

Somos alzados en bastones de mando
(We are raised in our staffs of authority)
Director: Mauricio Acosta
Colombia

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Short Film Fiction

23 Short Fiction Films from around the world were selected to participate. All from distant far away places yet strangely similar and close to home:

Raak
(Contact)
Director: Hanro Smitsman
Netherlands

Sexy Thing
Director: Denie Pentecost
Australia

Tristeza
Director: Pierre Saint-Martin Castellanos
México

Die Freisetzung
(Discharged)
Director: Ludwig Lockinger
Germany

Chocolate con Churros
Director: Mario de la Torre
Spain

Lo que trae la lluvia
Director: Alejandro Fernández Almendras
Chile

Contracuerpo
Director: Eduardo Chapero-Jackson
Spain

Parz
(Duty of the son)
Director: Temirbek Birnazarov
Kyrgystan

Rabenmutter
(Childhood Scars)
Director: Alex Schmidt
Germany

Kibera Kid
Director: Nathan Collet
Kenya

Lampa Cu Caciula
(The tube with a hat)
Director: Radu Jude
Romania

Soft
Director: Simon Ellis
United Kingdom

Plaz im Schatten
(In the shade)
Director: Sophie Narr
Germany

Merry Christmas
Director: CHOI Young - Jun
South Korea

Puente
Director: Miguel Muzquiz
México

Los amorosos
Director: José Luis Solís
México

Fin de trayecto
Director: Acán Coén
México

Innocent as I was
Director: Xiao Xiao
China

Beckenrand
(Poolside)
Director: Michael Koch
Germany-Switzerland

Bhaï Bhaï
(Bhai Bhai)
Director: Olivier Klein
France

El Relevo
(The Relief)
Director: David González
Spain

Moment de Gloire
(Moment of Glory)
Director: Hendrik Moneen
Belgium

Podróz
(Journey)
Director: Dariusz Glazer
Poland

Chinese Lessons

In preparation to the arrival of the Chinese Delegation from the Beijing Film Academy, the core festival team has been taking chinese lessons... now they know how to say hello "Ni hao" and thank you "Xié xie", but we´re afraid they might not be able to say much more than that... we´ll see in three weeks... but Huang jiàng quiáng, their teacher will make sure that they do!

OFFICIAL SELECTION - Features

(This is Luis Garza, our programming director)

After many hours of watching preview tapes and DVD´s, the Selection Committee has returned with probably the best selection of feature and short films that the Festival has shown:

FEATURE FILMS IN COMPETITION

DOCUMENTARY

La sombra del Iceberg
(The shadow of the Iceberg)
74 mins / Spain
Director: Raúl M. Riebenbauer and Hugo Doménech
Producer: Xavier Crespo Rico

Sugartown: Los novios
(Sugartown: The Bridegrooms)
82 mins / Greece-Germany
Director: Kimon Tsakiris
Producer: Rea Apostolides, Kimon Tsakiris


La guía del pervertido para cine
(The Pervert´s Guide to Cinema)
150 mins / United Kingdom-Austria-Netherlands
Dirección: Sophie Fiennes
Producción: Martin Rosenbaum

Invisibles
107 mins / Spain
Directors: Mariano Barroso, Isabel Coixet, Javier Corcuera, Fernando León de Aranoa and Wim Wenders
Producers: Javier Bardem

Zidane: Un retrato del siglo 21
(Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait)
90 minutes / France
Directors: Douglas Gordon y Philippe Parreno
Producers: Joni Sighvatsson, Anna-Lena Vaney and Victorien Vaney

Estrellas de La Línea
(The Railroad All-Stars)
91 mins / Spain
Director: Chema Rodríguez
Producers: Tomás Cimadevilla and Chema Rodríguez

Los Ladrones Viejos.
(The Old Thieves)
97 mins / México
Director: Everardo González
Producers: Issa Guerra, Everardo González, Roberto Garza and Alejandro Molina



FICCIÓN


El viaje de Iska
(Iska´s Journey)
93 mins / Hungary
Director: Csaba Bollók
Producer: Agnes Cseré

Libre Albedrío
(The Free Will)
163 mins / Germany
Director: Matthias Glasner
Producer: Frank Döhmann, Matthias Glasner, Christian Granderath, Jürgen Vogel

El Hombre de la Embajada
(The man from the Embassy)
100 mins / Germany
Director: Dito Tsintsadze
Producer: Christine Ruppert

Señorita
(Fraulein)
81 mins / Switzerland and Germany
Director: Andrea Staka
Producer: Susann Rüdlinger y Samir

Gucha: trompeta distante
(Gucha - Distant Trumpet)
94 mins / Serbia
Director: Dusan Milic
Producer: Karl Baumgartner, Thanassis Karathanos, Goran Radakovic, Aleksandra Milic, Josef Aichholzer, Stefan Kitanov and Emir Kusturica

El año en que mis padres fueron de vacaciones
(The year my parents went on vacation)
105 mins / Brazil
Director: Cao Hamburger
Producer: Fabiano Gullane y Cao Hamburger

Escucha el tiempo
(Fissures)
87 mins / France
Director: Alanté Kavaité
Producer: Antoine Simkine

2007 PROMO

The Festival is happy to present its 2007 promo. The work of several very creative people, the short film is fresh and groovy. Jorge González, our image designer, provided the basic imagery that Morfo, our key animator brought to life and mixed to a score by Chewbacca. Chewbacca? Well yeah...

Chewbacca is the name musician Daniel Rodríguez goes by. He blames Morfo (his nick is a whole other story) with his baptism under the wookie name. "Morfo had a radio show, and he played different characters, when people asked him who played Chewbacca, he said it was me..."

Morfo (check out his videos at www.youtube.com/morfologico) is quite a character. He seems not to sleep at all... or to sleep throughout the day... he's funny, loyal and very creative.

The staff worked long distance thanks to the internet. Chewbacca from Canada where he's currently going to music school and Morfo from ESTUDIO MORFIX in Monterrey (Actually the Morfix residence, studio, office, and many other things). After quite a few nights work, the promo was finally done and ready to be transferred to 35mm and of course, uploaded to the web.

So check out the video and let us know what you think!