Five Minutes With Hola Mexico Film Festival’s Samuel Douek

Thanks to our friends at Sol Beer, Pedestrian recently caught up with Hola Mexico Film Festival founder Samuel Douek to discuss his quintessential Mexican cinema, what the Australian film industry can learn from Mexico’s and the highlights from this year’s festival, which opens tomorrow at Event Cinemas on George Street.

Can you tell us why you wanted to start a festival celebrating Mexican film? The idea was to bring amazing Mexican cinema to Australia that’s how it started. I remember when I was living here back in 2002 and never saw any Mexican cinema here so by 2006 when I was doing my Masters in event management I decided to put on an event of my own. And it was actually a good year for Mexican cinema, there were so many great films coming out of Mexico and that was the main idea, to get these films playing in Australia.

What are the must see films at the festival this year? Oh man, there’s so much. We don’t bring too many and we choose everything so carefully so every film we screen is a must see. But if I had to say, I really enjoyed “A Better Life”, “La Brújula la lleva el Muerto” and “Espacio Interior”. There’s a great film called “Los Chidos” which is directed by Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from The Mars Volta and it’s crazy. I really love the program.

How do you find the films? It’s an ever-evolving process. I always see what’s going on in festivals around the world and at the Mexican box office and different festivals around Mexico. I keep my ears and my eyes open, even on Facebook and Twitter. I have connections in Mexico so I always know which films are coming in and out and the best films, usually the ones that touch me, are the ones I want bring to the festival.

You mentioned 2006 being a great year for Mexican film and I assume you’re talking about “Pan’s Labyrinth” and “Children Of Men” which are some of the best films of the last decade, what do you think it is about Mexican film and filmmakers which is so appealing to the rest of the world? I think it’s about telling very human stories which are unique yet universal. Mexicans enjoy our heritage and celebrate our culture, we’re very in touch with it. I mean, it’s a big country we have over 100 million people here and we’re so close to America and because of that we’ve been able to have a lot of filmmakers with a lot of experience and technical ability. That plus our ability to tell stories I think is what makes the Mexican film industry so vibrant.

So what are the three quintessential Mexican films that everyone should have seen buy now?Amores Perros (Love’s a Bitch) obviously, Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) and going a bit older Viridiana is a 1961 Luis Bunuel film which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes that year. I would start there.

What can the Australian film industry learn from Mexico’s? That’s a good question. I think Australia is actually doing a good job. I think both cultures can learn from each other a lot. I always felt there was a parallel world existing there because we both have very talented people working on the technical side of things who are known for their ability to improvise and make the best of situations and problem solve on a relatively short budget. We both make fantastic films. We both fight a lot to get local people to like our films but we do very overseas in film festivals around the world so if anything I think the one thing Australia can learn from Mexico is the way the government helps with money. Mexican productions succeed because the government readily helps its filmmakers with funding, something which I think is much more difficult.

What’s the most rewarding thing about putting on this festival? I’m just happy to bring something positive from Mexico. I think filmmakers in Mexico are really talented and their stories are great and I’m really happy to showcase that part of Mexico because unfortunately there are a lot of negative things happening in Mexico and a lot of bad press coming out of Mexico so when I put on the festival it’s a celebration of Mexican things. The most rewarding thing is opening the audience’s eyes to the country beyond the headlines.

HOLA MEXICO FILM FESTIVAL
When: Thursday October 25 – Monday November 5
Where: Event Cinemas George Street, 505-525 George Street Sydney
www.holamexicoff.com/

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