Prolific Mexican producer Ozcar Ramirez of (AM), whose most recent pic “El Peluquero Romantico,” helmed by Ivan Avila, competes at Morelia, and Gema Juarez Allen of Argentina’s , (“Oscuro Animal”) have teamed up for the first time to co-produce Avila’s next pic, “Chichimeca.” Avila’s production shingle 13 Lunas will also co-produce what would be his seventh arthouse feature. Set in the 1500s at the time of the Spanish conquest, “Chichimeca” is about a near-extinct tribe of hunter-gatherers in Northern Mexico called Tzacatecos or Cabezas Negras. Avila, who hails from this region, has co-penned the screenplay with playwright-TV scribe Luis Mario Moncada, after researching over the past two years, and consulting an anthropologist. The fiction feature will star real tribesmen and shoot in the remote sierra of the region. “It will be a logistical challenge,” said Ramirez who is targeting a mid-2017 start for principal photography. Drama will be shot chronologically with non-pros, with a budget of nearly $1 million.
“What attracted me to “Chichimeca” was the idea of telling a story about a world we have not seen, of which no traces have been left behind,” said Juarez Allen. “The ‘conquest’ of America destroyed a wealth of cultures, world views and stories which have rarely been told on film, especially in the way Ivan intends to approach it,” she added. Competing against 14 other local pics in Morelia’s official selection, “El Peluquero Romantico” dwells on a middle-aged man whose mother has passed away and who tries to reconstruct his life after divorce. Ramirez is currently in talks with potential sales agents and distributors. Drama participated in the Primer Corte (First Cut) competition of Buenos Aires-based confab Ventana Sur last year where it won the Premio Le Film Francais, consisting in advertising in the magazine, the Sofía Films post-prod award and a special mention from Argentine TV, involving acquisition of the film. Arte Mecanica is currently in development on “Los Años Rotos” by Gerardo Tort, a $3.5 million feature on the dirty war in Mexico while it’s also prepping at least two docus: “Where Things Remain” a debut feature docu of Daniela Silva Solozano, and “Robertson St.” by Cecilia Mendoza Vazquez, to shoot in New Orleans.
AM is also developing comedy “Hijo de Familia,” to be directed by Hari Sama. “We hope to be shooting at least two features next year,” said Ramirez. Arte Mecanica is moreover jumping onto the TV bandwagon and expanding its team. “There’s a lot of production of television series for OTTs and free-to-air TV in Mexico but series tend to repeat the same themes or plots; I’d like to do something different,” he said. The shingle’s push into TV is led by Jacopo Fontana, the company’s director of new content, along with executive producer Montserrat Cattaneo, and executive producer Bruna Haddad who joins the team early next year. The historic launch of Mexico’s third broadcasting channel Imagen TV on Oct. 17, which has announced plans to include a raft of original content, is heartening news for independent producers in Mexico. “I hope they opt for content outside of the norm,” said Ramirez. Among the series in development are “Ni Rubia, Ni Rica,” a millennial-targeted comedy about an aspiring actress in Mexico;
thriller “El Tercer Ojo” about two young scientists who become vigilantes after they develop the skills to see the future and prevent crimes; and “Venetia,” a 13-episode gothic thriller series, created, penned and to be directed by Fontana. Set in Venice, “Venetia” revolves around an Inspector Fontana whose investigation into a series of violent murders in Venice leads him to uncover ancient rituals and a secret sect. Part of the problem of Jacqueline (Argentine) is that it wants to be a film of many layers but Britto doesn't have the know-how to keep each layer legible separately. October 18, 2016 | Gets points for originality but quickly succumbs to terminal self-amusement. Britto is, essentially, targeting only low-hanging fruit. October 27, 2016 | The movie's own self-doubts about life and art may have arrived for too late for the average viewer, though it's this questioning and dreamy conclusion that actually binds Jacqueline (Argentina) and give it some small satisfactions.
Almost profound in its rambling search for a point. January 31, 2016 | The bulk of Bernardo Britto's footage is unbearably tedious chatter amid time spent lounging around the inexpensive resort, without even treating us to much natural splendour. January 27, 2016 | This is an expertly deejayed party without name-tags (until the credits), which on some level may be an appropriate manifestation of a shared, passed-down music that defines something collective about a people. June 30, 2016 | "Argentina" provides a fine introduction to that country's traditional music and dance for those already familiar with it. The contradiction in that statement is why this pretty film is also a frustrating one. June 16, 2016 | Minor but highly watchable ... Carlos Saura's Argentina is really a concert film, unique in that the only spectator is the camera. June 15, 2016 | The vignettes are connected, though -- visually through Saura's habit of enlarging and distorting imagery, and spiritually through his unabashed love of his subject.
September 21, 2016 | Saura proves once again, he is the best in the business capturing dance on film. In this case he has the added advantage of two wildly cinematic show-stopping numbers. June 28, 2016 | Argentine President Mauricio Macri said he suspects that late prosecutor Alberto Nisman — who died mysteriously in 2015 when he was about to testify about former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s alleged efforts to cover up Iran’s ties to a 1994 terrorist bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina — was murdered, and did not commit suicide as originally reported.Macri said in an interview with the Miami Herald and CNN en Español — to be aired in two parts starting Sunday — that “it's hard to believe that Nisman committed suicide. There are too many situations, indications, realities of those hours, those days, that don't match with a suicide."Nisman's body was found drenched in blood at his apartment on Jan. 18, 2015, a day before he was to testify in Congress about his investigation concluding that former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner had signed a deal with Iran aimed at covering up Iran's ties to the attack against the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.
Nisman's death was initially labeled as a probable suicide. Asked whether he has inside information from intelligence agencies to suspect that Nisman was killed, Macri said that he reached that conclusion "by using common sense. I add, analyze, see, evaluate how the prosecutor acted, what it is that he was doing, and then I say, "This [a suicide] doesn't make sense."Macri said that "a definitive investigation" is needed to find out how Nisman died, following numerous reports that the original investigation was botched. He added that he wants Argentina's justice system to carry out a probe with total independence."I want to generate the conditions, which I think I'm doing, to allow our justice system to freely investigate what really happened. I hope that, within a few months, we will be able to know what really happened," he said.Macri's statement came shortly after a Sept. 24 report in the daily Clarin quoting former top Kirchner government spying agency official Jaime Stiuso as saying that Iranian and Venezuelan agents — with the protection of Kirchner government supporters — had killed Nisman.
Stiuso made the statements in a sealed court testimony in February, the newspaper said.The investigation into Nisman's death is now likely to be taken over by a federal court. Macri said that he will be "very respectful of the independence" of the judicial power, and that he won't interfere in the investigation.Macri also rejected speculation in the media that he does not want prosecutors to send former president Fernandez de Kirchner to jail, for fear of igniting massive protests from her supporters. He said the justice system will decide. "I don't believe in an Argentina guided by revenge, by rancor. I believe in an Argentina that's focused on the future, and not on persecuting the past."Asked how he intends to bring Argentina's economy back to life after several years of slow growth and recession, Macri said that he will focus on re-establishing business confidence.Argentina is winning domestic and international credibility in part by appointing independent Supreme Court justices, restoring the independence of the Central Bank and eliminating government interference in the national INDEC statistics agency, he said.
Under the Fernandez government, Argentina's INDEC was widely known for routinely tampering with economic growth and poverty statistics to make her government look better.The president asserted that Argentina's rising poverty rates — which have continued to grow since Macri took office in December and are now at 32 percent — will be used as a starting point to bring the number down substantially during the remainder of his presidency."That will be the key number we will use to measure ourselves," Macri said about his government. "If we don't reduce poverty by the end of our term in 2019, our government will have failed."Macri also lashed out against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for not allowing a constitutionally-sanctioned recall referendum this year. Under Venezuelan law, if the referendum is not held this year, Maduro's vice-president could serve until the end of his term in 2019."The stumbling blocks placed by the Maduro government on the referendum are more evidence of its lack of adherence to democracy," Macri said."