Dubai: The spotlight at this year's Dubai International Film Festival In Focus panel discussion may have been on Mexican cinema, but the emphasis was really on strengthening ties with the Middle East.
"We want to meet people who we can enter into dialogue with to look at what opportunities there are for us in this region," said panelist Cristina Prado of the Mexican Film Institute. "We have sales in this region and we have rights with the television. But we'd like to speak to anyone about whether they'd be interested in getting copyrights in order to show Mexican films in the cinema here. How films are distributed in the cinema here? They are all things we'd like to understand more about."
Taking place in the Film Forum, Mexico in Focus welcomed panelists director Filipe Cazals; Tonantzin Esparza of Maya Entertainment, a distribution company of Mexican films in the US; producer Bertha Navarro and moderator, Monica Delgado of the Reforma newspaper.
Cazals was extremely passionate about the lack of exposure for Mexican films and predominantly blames this for the poor success rate.
Limited exposure
"Even in Mexico, 97 per cent of screens only show films from the US rather than from Latin America," he said through a translator. "As a result, which co-producer is going to be interested in Mexico, when they know the possibility for exposure is limited.
"So this is a problem. Even for the co-production panorama the enthusiasm does exist and takes place through intentions but it's not successful when it comes to practicalities.
"The stars we see on the red carpet at an event like this are there because of the film maker. Someone writes for them, someone does their make-up, their hair. But they are known because of the film."
More info
The Dubai International Film Festival runs until December 19 and for more information visit www.dubaifilmfest.com
