Sofía Guzmán
Production Designer
Colombian auteur Ana Maria Hermida (“The Firefly”) is directing an all-star cast in Catalyst Studios‘ “Alix.”
The film introduces Cristal Aparcio (“Enfermeras”) to international audiences in the title role of Alix. Based on Hermida’s script, the film also stars Natalia Reyes (“Terminator Dark Fate”), Roberto Urbina (“Snowpiercer”), Carlos Bardem (“El Cid”) and Carolina Guerra (“Animal Kingdom”). Principal photography has begun in the jungles of Rio Claro, Colombia.
A redemptive coming-of-age tale about the discovery of inner strength and new beginnings, the film is a magic realist tale that tells the story of Conejo (Urbina), a skilled soldier, and a young girl, Alix (Aparicio), who he recruits to be a child soldier in the Colombian jungle under the command of the charismatic Ramon (Bardem). Alix, innocent and optimistic, deals with the trauma of her hard circumstances by letting her imagination journey to a magical realm.
“Saber que Memento Mori tendrá la posibilidad de ser vista en el Festival es toda una honra. Es muy significativo que el FICCI y su equipo quiera mostrar la película. Es de gran relevancia este escenario que se abre para recibir el filme. Desde los invitados, el público y cada persona allí le dan esa importancia que me hace sentir muy agradecido”, expresa López Cardona, con mucha emotividad y sorpresa al saber que su primer largometraje abrirá uno de los festivales más importantes de Latinoamérica.
Diseñadora de producción colombiana radicada en México durante un periodo de 6 años y que actualmente vive en Los Estados Unidos. Cuenta con más de 17 años de experiencia también como directora de arte y decoradora de set, en los cuales ha trabajado de la mano de directores como Victor Gaviria, Josef Kubota Wladyka, Rubén Imaz, por nombrar algunos. Ha participado en proyectos de televisión y cine para Fox Telecolombia, Discovery Channel, Netflix, HBO Max, Televisa y Canal +. La mayoría de los proyectos que ella ha desarrollado se producen entre Colombia, México y Estados Unidos.
“What is fascinating is that the filmmaker spent five years in Buenaventura learning what was going on there and building up the trust of people. The average filmmaker would never take the time to do that. You feel that in the film: There a sense of genuineness which you don’t get in 99% of indie films today,”
“For many, life in Buenaventura in western Colombia is shot through with violence, and it’s that violence which is the focus of Manos sucias, a punchy, atmospheric drama about a river trip by two young men carrying a dangerous cargo, which is a rare combination of straight-up action and moral sensitivity”.
“Este largometraje toca temas actuales de una manera fresca y sencilla, así como retrata los encuentros inesperados y los pequeños milagros que suceden en la búsqueda de uno mismo, de los sueños, aventuras y de cumplir metas; donde el cuestionamiento personal impulsa a los personajes a salir de su rutina y de su zona de confort para empezar a abrirse camino por la vida y experimentar”.
“As Son of Monarchs careens towards its mystical denouement, cutting to credits before fully committing to the magical realism it flirts with, one can hardly help but admire Gambis’s narrative gambit. His attempt at creating not just a cinema about ecology but a kind of ecological cinema — one that could help audiences understand how the interconnectedness between grief, immigration and genetics is at once an aesthetic and a political problem about conservation — is revelatory”.
“Son of Monarchs won Sundance’s Alfred P. Sloan Feature Film Prize, which recognizes portrayals of science in film. In addition to an MFA in film from NYU, Gambis holds a PhD in molecular biology, and is Assistant Professor of Biology, Film & New Media at NYU Abu Dhabi. If anyone was equipped to make a science film, it’s Gambis. The research scenes of Mendel hunched over a telescope feel real and lived in, not like the jargonistic forensics labs of crime shows or action thrillers. In “Son of Monarchs,” Gambis has mapped the butterflies’ migratory paths and genetic patterns onto Mendel’s search for belonging. It’s an inspired blend of science and narrative, and an affecting allegory emerges from the unique imagery”.
“Film-maker Alexis Gambis is himself a biologist and founded the Imagine Science Film Festival. While Son of Monarchs is steeped in colour, and full of cinematographer Alejandro Mejía’s mouth-watering and occasionally stomach-churning macro-photography of butterflies and their pupae, ultimately this isn’t a film about the findings of science. It is about science as a vocation and how to relight the spark of curiosity. It is a hopeful film and, on more than the visual level, a beautiful one”.
“Imaz teje un universo tanto real como onírico, donde el paisaje es otro personaje central de la historia. De momentos arrebatadores, en otros se transforman y se oscurecen para dar una sensación de intriga y misticismo únicos. Todo el diseño de producción y la fotografía soportan de forma clara y contundente ese viaje fantástico por el que va atravesando Romero,
haciendo que como él, el espectador pierda, sin siquiera notarlo, el sentido de la realidad”.
“While Tormentero’s narrative meanders, it finds a more focused voice in its striking visuals. Working with cinematographer Gerardo Barroso, Imaz has choreographed the film to the last detail. Lingering shots of trees, of Don Rome drinking alone, of a wooden pier, and so on, are all composed with a painter’s touch, a series of portraits whose individual beauty stands apart from the film itself”.
