From cinema to a friend of the soul

From cinema to a friend of the soul 

What was the interpretation that made the name of Diego Luna was known internationally, In 2001 Diego Luna played one of the main characters of the movie "y tu mama tambien" directed by the director Alfonso Quaron.The movie had great success in the United States opening great doors in Hollywood to Diego Luna, but he was not alone, his performance in this movie was with Gael Garcia another of the protagonists.

Gael Garcia and Diego Luna began their friendship in the telenovela "El abuelo y yo" when they were just children and began their journey to fame. After the success of the movie "y tu mama tambien" forged their friendship with the name of "Charolastras" which means friend of the soul, the word charolastra comes from a song they heard in English using it for the movie and the meaning of their friendship .

In 2005, the actors decided to join together to collaborate in something bigger than a film, they founded the production house Canana films where its purpose is to explorethe production of independent films in Mexico as documentaries and short films.

When they created Canana films they decided to make a short film for an advertising campaign of a recognized brand of whiskey, the short film was recorded in Tulum and they captured the message of friendship and forgiveness, Luna commented that "Nobody can hurt you more than a friend. Among friends you have some power and I feel we are weak and we end up using it at least once, but it is part of being friends and in the movie we see it because otherwise these characters would be completely alone". 

Without a doubt Diego Luna and Gael Garcia are an example of what we can call brothers, despite being surrounded by international fame, awards, movies, interviews, etc. The actors do not leave out their country and the problems they are facing.

In the earthquake that shook the capital of Mexico in 2017, Diego and Gael raised more than 200,000 USD to help the victims through an international campaign to help Mexico and social networks. We can not leave behind the confrontation of these two actors against Senator Javier Lozano, where they demand that the internal security law should not be approved, that is, a country that is completely militarized. The actors led social movements against the approval of this law.

"Documental Ambulante A.C."  is one of the most important projects for Diego and Gael, is an organization that is dedicated to support and disseminate documentary film as a tool of cultural and social transformation. They travel to places in Mexico that are not seen very often in order to seek new channels of expression and reflection in Mexico and abroad. Every year the actors perform a festival to show more than 100 titles to promote documentary film throughout the country and internationally. A way to spread Mexico through their stories.

Diego Luna and Gael Garcia are Mexican actors recognized internationally and great in Hollywood without a doubt a Mexican pride. Their friendship is an example of what it is to be a brother to a Mexican, and the support they have for each other to work together has made them grow in the film industry. Growing up and being recognized has not made them forget their country. On the contrary, their love for Mexico has grown so much that they are looking for ways for the Mexico we know today to be rebuilt. Getting to Hollywood is not easy, but these two Mexicans inspire many to go far and create projects to be the change we want to achieve.

Mexico and Hollywood are delighted with the projects of these two actors and look forward to the projects they have for the future and no doubt will surprise us.

Guillermo del Toros Key Influences and Inspiration

Guillermo del Toro's Key Influences in the Production and Creation of Movies.

Guillermo del Toro being as we know a Producer, Director, Screenwriter and even Novelist. He is a well known person in the Movie Business having won already Oscars, Globes and a lot of awards given to him by his effort and good work in his movies. Del Toro as the title says has a really peculiar point of view of things loving the Victorian Culture as it's represented in an old Victorian London with customs, architecture and etiquette. Del Toro even has a Victorian Library which he calls “The Dickens Room”. In that room all the works of Dickens, Wilkie Collins and even more Victorian Artists works are being not a room but more as a Library.

Del Toro has an obsession with Jack the Ripper which as a real fan of him he loves Horror being the cause of some of his movies as Hellboy and The Pan's Labyrinth. Del Toro as some of his Key Influences quotes “I’m a better writer when I write for him.” when he talks about Ron Perlman being the Actor in the character of Hellboy. Things that personally move Del Toro that makes him inspire are too the Science Fiction and Horror literature with all of the descriptions that Del Toro takes as a work of art with illumination making it beautiful.

As a characteristic of Del Toro it could be considered that it has feeling and lustrous sensation for the viewer as in “The Book of Life” in which he represents death, culture, life and the rich folklore of the Mexicans with beautiful colors and characters with a rich script (Ron Perlman participated in it) giving a better and cheerful representation of each one. As what we can tell from Guillermo del Toro is that he takes from other authors and writers not the ideas but the inner idea of each one with its right characters and rich script giving us the public and viewers his great and amazing movies that we see in the cinema and don't stop seeing.

Star Wars: Rogue One a story of a Mexican Actor

Star Wars: Rogue One a story of a Mexican Actor

As we know Lucas film and Star Wars are a giant of the film industry and see a Mexican like Diego Luna perform in "Star Wars: Rogue One" (a film that does not belong to the original trilogy) is very pleased because he did not get there by magic, it is said that the directors had already seen the work of Diego Luna in films like "Elysium" which was where the producers and directors.

Gareth and John Schwartz one of the producers who were watching many scenes of Elysium (2013) said that that movie was the one that catapulted him to Star Wars: Rogue one.

Even when he was  speaking with the directors, Diego Luna told them that he was going to keep his Mexican accent in the film since he feels very proud of his accent and did not think about changing it in any way, the director told him that's why the I had called him by his accent, since he says that through acting you can transmit different emotions and characteristics of a person.

He confesses to us that he is working with actors so prepared, in a project that I connect him even with his childhood since he was still star wars and lucasfilm since he was a child since he started watching his films and these were the ones that connected him to the cinema.

When he did his first scene in which he shoots a storms trooper, he tells us that he felt his fantasy come true, that he had dreamt about this and that now he was living it from within. 

Diego Luna said that this film is going to get him to places he has never reached, that he will even be able to choose projects with more freedom, and he hopes that this film can give him freedom for many more years.

Diego Luna, another Mexican who raises our courage, our desire to raise the name of our country, embracing the Mexican title. Once again, far from his home, he does not forget the nationalist feeling of being part of this country. If Diego has been where he has been its due to his culture, to his lessons that he learned in our territory, that he successfully taken all that passion abroad through the lessons and the culture that he learnt.

The films, the mexicans and the underrated talent

Gael García Bernal, has a stunning career in Hollywood, and even though all his achievements, prices and movies, he says that Hollywood isn’t the best anymore, it is not a place that an actor should try to get. The filmic industry has been changing throughout the years, so Hollywood is getting left behind in the past.

Since Donald Trump is the president of the United States, people started having uncertainty about what could happen to latin actors in the industry. Gael tries to get people to start getting united for getting bigger achievements in the industry. He thinks we need new talents, more latin work, getting the world to know more than just American talents.

He is kind of tired of being working there, and working about the same things, so he decided to start a play named “Ejercicios fantásticos del yo”, of Fernando Pessoa. He says it is a new kind of challenge, because his comfort zone is the film industry, but he is trying to give his best the 10 weeks the play will be rolling.

Since he was a kid, he fell in love with the plays, he grew up being behind scenes, but everytime he watches a play, he starts having that feeling again, he is intrigue of what attracts people to watch plays, because everybody has a different perception and thoughts of what they see.

He invites people to get to know him in another ambit of his career, he is grateful of all his success in the industry, but now, it is time for him to get to other artistic industries, to be with his family, and to get to what he felt in love with first.

I think Hollywood doesn't want to accept mexicans in their movies at all, but it shouldn’t affects us, because they have achieved to stand out in many ways, and they can keep doing it in many other, for example in theatre like Gael.

Throughout the time, things can change, creating a stronger bond between both of them, and the proof is in the few mexican actors and actresses, that have been a great inversion for them, also mentioning the directors that have won their place, getting the biggest award, an Oscar.

The beginning of a great star

Salma Hayek is now one of the most famous Latin American stars in the world of cinema, but do not think it has been easy for her to get to where she is now. Salma Hayek (name in Hindu means Peace) Hayek Jimenez is the daughter of the Mexican businessman of Lebanese origin Sami Hayek and the Mexican opera Singer Diana Hayek. She began her career as an actress in 1988 appearing in many telenovelas in Mexico, her home country.

 Salma Hayek quit Universidad Iberoamericana to pursue her dream of becoming an actor, an ambition she had harbored since she was a young child watching Sunday matinees with her father.Salma Hayek is one of the best-know Mexican actresses in Hollywood, but his fame she owes to telenovelas, the genre where her career began. Let's remember his first steps in acting.

His first telenovela was "Nuevo Amanecer" in 1988 where she gave life to 'Fabiola'. Daniela Castro, Salma and Raúl Araiza formed the juvenile love triangle. While she had previously held small roles in other soap operas, it was her leading role in the Mexican soap "Teresa" that turned Hayek into an overnight success.

Hayek moved to Los Angeles, California, in 1991 to study acting under Stella Alder. She had limited fluency in english, and dyslexia. Robert Rodriguez and his producer and then wife, Elizabeth Avellan, soon gave Hayek a starring role opposite Antonio Banderas in 1995's Deseperado. Her famous role was in the movie Frida, she interpretating Frida Kahlo.

The story of this great actress makes us realize that we have to fight for our dreams and believe in ourselves, she is an inspiration for many Mexican people nowadays. mexico needs that, needs a stronger woman that show us that life is not easy and that womans also show that women are opening paths of great importance in history

Who or what is "El chivo"?

Who or what is "El chivo"?

Since before his birth, the family of the great Emmanuel Lubezki already had a various artist. This started with his grandmother from the side of his father, who escape from Russia during the Bolshevik revolution to go to Shanghai, China. His grandmothers wish of being an actress in Hollywood was very big, so because of her stubbornness, they tried to go to the U.S.A, where her wish would come true. Unfortunately, her dream wasn’t accomplished, so she decided to stay in Mexico, where her grandmother got married and formed a family. His father, Muni Lubezki, tried to accomplish her mother’s dream, but he became an actor, who is remembered for his roles in “Ambar”, “From Mesmer”, “With Love or Tea for Two”, and “Es hora de recuperar”.

At the age of five he got his very characteristic nickname of “El Chivo”, he tells that a friend from his school gave him the nickname, he never knew why, he just thought that his face looked like a goat, however, it was a type of trend or something very common because he had friends with nicknames of animals like: “tiburón(shark)”, “pollo(chicken)” or “cerdo(pig)”.

Emmanuel Lubezki since he was young had his goals very clear, because since he was a child saw a lot of movies, even if he didn’t understand what was happening, he says that in occasions he saw them without subtitles because the only thing that matter to him was the image, he remembers the Italian ones, like Fellini and Pasolini, but he also saw some Americans like Scorsese and Coppola.

When he grew up, Lubezki studied Cinematography and did his first movies here in Mexico like “Bandidos” or “Camino largo a Tijuana”, however, he was not satisfied with his work here in Mexico so he searched to produce movies in the USA, where he tells that he suffered a lot, when he arrived he didn't know English, especially on his first American film “Reality bites” where he realized that everything was very different, because when in Mexico he talked about the movie, in the USA he talked about where to park.

Nowadays “El Chivo” Lubezki is a person known for his movies like: “The Revenant”, “Gravity” and “Birdman”. He has won 3 Oscars consecutively and he is in the search for a fourth one, however, we can assume that the next one will be amazing because we know that Emmanuel Lubezki that always put all his efforts and feelings in his work.

Filmmaker since kid

ALFONSO   CUARÓN

Here is were the odyssey started. Alfonso Cuarón was interested in the cinema and the astronauts (This explains his great space odyssey "Gravity"). Such was his interest in making films that his ambition was to know all the cinemas in Mexico City. When he was 12 years old, he received his first video camera, but since his family did not support the idea of being a filmmaker, he began his Philosophy career alternating with his film studies at "Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos" (CUEC).

In 2013 he premiered "Gravity", a film with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney that has been acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Rio Grande and who added seven statuettes of 10 nominations in the Oscars for Best Edition and Best Director, both for Cuarón, being thus the first Mexican and Latin American director in winning in this last category.

A reporter became famous for asking Alfonso Cuarón: "What were the technical and human difficulties of recording in space? I mean, how did they do it?"

Behind this question were surprising reactions and made it the center of all the jokes for a while, but that reporter said something we all had in mind, even Cuaron (yes, even those of us who knew that it was not filmed in space).

We all have goals, but only the minority accomplishes them or fights until they get what they want, no matter how difficult it may be. Cuaron is a clear example of this since he was a child he wanted to succeed in Hollywood. Resilience is the definition of Cuaron's journey from Mexico to Hollywood accomplishing all his dreams being recognized as the first Mexican to win many nominations in the Oscar's and later winning two.