cinemaztlan :: film

Mezcal

Ignacio Ortiz
Mexico | 2005 | 90' | 35mm

Wednesday 19 September
19.30 hrs, De Balie

Parian is the mythic last stop for people who have lost their trace. The unhappy few gather in the local Cantina and stare in their glasses of Mezcal. The liquor encourages them to contemplate their lives for the last time in hell's waiting room. The visualisation
of their story's gives a beautiful insight in Mexican daily life.

A screenwriter and director, Ignacio Ortíz (b. 1957, Oaxaca, Mexico) wrote the animated film La paloma azul in (1989) and co-wrote with Carlos Carrera the screenplay for the successful film La mujer de Benjamín (1990). His directorial debut, the short El hombre que no escucha boleros (1992), won a CCC competition that allowed him to make the full-length feature La orilla de la tierra (1993). He won the FICC Prize at Karlovy Vary 2002 for his film Cuento de hadas para dormir cocodrilos (2001). He has also worked for theatre and radio, and currently teaches at the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC), where he studied film direction after having studied medicine.

Theme Micro universes
Mezcal is part of the theme Micro universes. This theme focuses on those parallel worlds that cohabit inside Mexico; group and visions that reflect different kind of understanding of reality.