Out In Town

Hollywood-DF

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association awarded Mexican Director & Producer Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu’s “Babel” the Golden Globe for Best Picture (Drama) of 2006, at their Beverly Hills ceremony. This was Babel’s only win out of seven nominations, but undoubtedly it was the most important award of the night. As a Mexican living abroad I was extremely proud and pleased with Alejandro’s work and recognition for “Babel.” For sometime now there have been some really good films that have come out from the Aztec land. Some of those films have been well received by the Hollywood critics, but unfortunately the film’s distribution has been very limited. Thankfully for me and for some hundreds of thousands of Mexicans (and not) living on the wonderful city of Los Angeles, we are fortunate to enjoy films that other cities and/or countries cannot. Well, I think that was a wishful thought: hundreds of thousands of Mexicans! Unfortunately, I must admit, the vast majority of my people living in the USA are not interested in the arts. I fight and argue constantly with one of my aunts in regards to this matter. She does not agree with me. But she’s wrong. I understand why most of the immigrants and citizens of Hispanic descent are clueless in regards to art events. The only goal in their minds is essentially survival for them and their families. They claim that there will be time for some “entertainment” later. Bullshit! There ain’t no later. One has to make it happen now.

It is funny how there is always time to catch the three consecutive “very important” and “decisive” soccer games. Obviously, one cannot miss the beginning, the middle or the end of the telenovela because it will be blasphemy. The Hispanic T.V. networks provide with so much trash, usually copies of the Anglo “successes.” I don’t even want to start naming T.V. shows because I will never end. It just really bugs me that there is so much easy access to very important cultural events, specially in this city, that are widely missed by the Latino community. The Hispanic media again is to take a hit for this. The very low coverage of these events just heightens the lack of access for our community. When I go to plays, concerts, galleries, exhibitions or great movies showings the Latinos are always the minority in this city where they form a huge chunk of our society. I really hope this changes soon. I am trying to do my part. I take my family (parents, grandmother and brothers) to events I hear about or that I know will spark some interest in them. They have loved exhibitions at the Getty Center. They have been moved at concerts at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. They have been astonished at special exhibitions like the very acclaimed Ashes and Snow by the Nomadic Museum. I have taken them to watch or queued in Netflix for them movies that I think are worth seeing. And the like… Obviously in the midst of all this I try to always mix in fun stuff, dancing, music, beers and mariachis. Basically time to just get wild - after all we’re Mexicans. I always love when I am able to engage in very deep and interesting discussions with people. I love learning from other people’s points of view. Needless to say I will argue my opinions, but I always respect those of others. And when those passionate discussions are with other Latinos living in the USA, I love them even more. There is a difference between people living here and those back in Mexico, at least Mexico City. In Mexico, thank God, there’s still a tendency for learning. Hopefully this will continue to grow and will rub on more and more people and will extend to this vast land full of Mexicans.

Hollywood has recognized the talent of Gonzalez Iñarritu. But he was not the only Mexican who made great films this year. We had three very talented Mexican born directors whose work received accolades by critics worldwide. Besides Gonzalez Iñarritu’s Babel, Alfonso Cuaron’s Children of Men and Guillermo del Toro’s Laberinto del Fauno (Pan’s Labyrinth, also nominated for the Golden Globes for Best Foreign Film) were outstanding films. These three close friends had a great year and through them many of us did as well. I was blown away by the contrasts and similarities among cultures as presented by Babel. I was forced to consider more deeply the direction of our societies and the importance of the “thought” of future generations by Children of Men. I was glued to the story and impressed by the imagination of Del Toro in Pan’s Labyrinth. The award season just begins. We still have Mr. mighty Oscar coming up soon. We’ll see how the Academy will treat this Tres Amigos and their work. Hopefully they notice these men’s talents because there’s more on the way. Guillermo Arriaga’s Buffalo de la Noche (Buffalo of the Night) is already making some noise South of the border and Juan Carlos Rulfo’s En el Hoyo (In the Pit) is considered so far the Most Award-Winning Mexican Film. These films will make their way up North in the next couple of months. Until then, let’s clear the way for El Señor Oscar to guide us to this emergent Hollywood, Hollywood-DF!

posted by Guerrero Azteca @ 6:04 PM