A Celebrate Mexico Now tradition lives on. The Morelia International Film Festival, one of Mexico’s most renowned gatherings for contemporary cinema, sends us six award-winning short films from its 2014 edition ranging from animation to documentary. All films are in Spanish with English subtitles.

Following the screening, stay with us for a Q&A with New York based emerging Mexican filmmakers: J. Xavier Velasco (Director/Producer),  Tania Zarak (Producer/Writer),  Alejandro Mejía (Cinematographer/Director). Moderated by Sebastián Díaz (Director/Film Curator).

Special Mention for a Short Documentary: Man of Maze (El hombre del maíz)
Dir. Irving Mondragón · 2014 · France · Mexico · Color · 23m 16s
To develop a means to measure the cycles of time, every civilization has created a calendar, one of the most revolutionary and complex puzzles ever designed by man. The men of maize have bequeathed us their memory and the secret of their calendars as they contemplate how the moon changes the questioning face with which she was born into a smile that illuminates the meeting of shadows and light.

Stories (Historias)
Dir. Ana Ireri Campos Estrada · 2014 · Mexico · Color · 9m 45s
A woman, Victoria Almazán Cortés, is in pain; and she is alone. Victoria is a well known, successful author after releasing two her first two books. She is about to write her third book but is suffering from a broken heart and multiple addictions. This is the beginning of a new story for Victoria, one with an unexpected ending.

Best Work from the Michoacan Section: Never Come Back (Nunca regreses)
Dir.  José Leonardo Díaz Vega · 2014 · Mexico · Color · 16m 50s
Two young friends accept a job, unaware that they may never return to where they were or to their old life.

Best Animated Short Film: 9:30 am (9:30 am)
Dir. Alfonso de la Cruz · 2014 · Mexico · Color · 8m 47s
Ernesto, a child spending summer vacations at his grandmother’s, show us how moments of daily life are full of complex emotions with simple meanings. When a problem arises that the adults alone understand, Ernesto’s life is affected. He must discover the secret so that everything can be normal again. The answer seems simple: feel more and think less.

Best Short Documentary: The Wear of Agony (El sudor de la agonía)
Dir. Mariano Rentería Garnica · 2014 · Mexico · Color · 10m 00s
This is the re-interpretation of a truth. It is a visual waltz through the spaces, people, and objects that make up the working class of Mexico, a place where their reality and their dreams dance and dialogue.

Best Short Fiction Film: Ramona (Ramona)
Dir. Giovanna Zacarías · 2014 · Mexico · Color · 15m 00s
Ramona is 84, and she has announced that she is ready to die. While her family is making the preparations, however, she changes her mind.

Additional support for this event by Morelia International Film Festival.