With films like Lola (1989) and danzon (1991), among others, María Novaro helped open a path that then seemed impossible to follow and that was even complicated for men. In the days when there were no female figures in the creative positions of national cinema, the current director of the Mexican Institute of Cinematography (IMCINE) decided not to align herself with the established parameters that pigeonholed the genre in front of and behind the cameras. More than 30 years later, the percentage of female participation in Mexican sets is higher than in countries with an important cinematographic tradition.
Thus, according to The countryIn 2016, 162 films were made in Mexico, of which 49 were directed by female producers (30.2 percent), 37 by female directors (22.8 percent), and 34 scripts were written by women. At the same time, in Spain, film production had a female participation of 19 percent, while in the United States it barely reached 13 percent. “There were very few women who worked when there was little cinema. There was no state support or conditions to do so. I think that being very foolish and strong saved us,” recalls Novaro.
On danzonJulia, the main character, was not a sexual object or the submissive companion of a man. She was the mother of a girl and someone who followed her passion, a topic then uncommon. danzon It was the film with which Mexico returned to the Cannes Festival after more than 15 years of absence. A lot of things started to change from there.
The beginning of everything: schools
The fact that today there are more women working in positions of influence in Mexican cinema is not only due to individual efforts. “It was a gradual process in which the schools had a lot to do with it,” says producer Tita Lombardo. “In my time there were four or five women directors, but photographers, don’t even think about it. They were discriminated against because there were fierce unions. Even the men had problems. They were generations of women who left school and thanks to that today there are splendid directors and photographers”.
It was in 1963 that the University Center for Cinematographic Studies (CUEC) was founded, which would later become the National School of Cinematographic Arts (ENAC), and 12 years later the Center for Cinematographic Training (CCC) was created, two schools that they have trained many of today’s most important Mexican filmmakers.
María Novaro is a graduate of CUEC, while Rodrigo Prieto, Carlos Carrera, Tatiana Huezo and Elisa Miller are from CCC. “The atmosphere was different. The CUEC and the CCC were schools where there was an almost equal participation between men and women, as well as an encouraging environment”, recalls Novaro. “It was difficult to leave a school that had made you strong, where you worked with respect, to enter a world of work where everything was closed, but the schools strengthened us a lot.” The fact that the schools trained generations of women filmmakers had helped a great deal to change the perspective of Mexican cinema. “The stories that women tell are different, there is another sensitivity that is being discovered. Before, female sensitivity was much more subdued and hidden”, says Lombardo.
A sensitivity that has allowed us to enjoy films with a diversity of themes ranging from relationships, to mental disorders, through gender violence, identity, racism and cultural practices, among many other issues. The producer and screenwriter Soco Aguilar explains that now we can see a real woman with tribulations, but also with dreams and expectations. “That has been changed, although not completely, but we are no longer decorations. Now there is a great diversity that is more human,” she comments.
For María Novaro, each author speaks from her way of seeing things, and films with female participation, for the most part, reflect a less narrated world. “When I made Lola, which was a movie about a single mother, colleagues of mine told me it wasn’t about anything. They were themes that were considered insignificant and there was a lot of confusion among men when it came to receiving the female narrative, ”he recalls. “That has already changed. The female narrative is imposing itself while reflecting the womanhood of the author who proposes it. They are voices that reflect a world that has not been fully represented in the cinema, something that speaks of the diversity of the world.”
the numbers of change
At the end of the 19th century, the first women who participated in Mexican cinema were actresses, make-up artists, seamstresses, cooks, hairdressers and scorers, and it was not until 1917 that Mexico had its first director and producer, the actress Mimí Debra.
At the end of the 19th century, the first women who participated in Mexican cinema were actresses, make-up artists, seamstresses, cooks, hairdressers and scorers, and it was not until 1917 that Mexico had its first director and producer, the actress Mimí Debra. founder of Azteca Films and director of The tigress. Throughout the following decades, however, women filmmakers could be counted on the fingers of one hand, although figures emerged who are now legends of national cinema, such as Matilde Landeta or Adela Sequeyero.
In the 1930s and 1940s, women were portrayed as fragile, sensual and submissive, while in the 1970s the film of files turned them into a sexual object for the screen. This image began to change in the 1990s, just as the female gender reached creative positions and Mexico’s film production grew.
According to data from the IMCINE Statistical Yearbook of Mexican Cinema, of the 69 films produced in 2010, 20 percent were directed by women, exactly twice as many as the previous year. Ten years later, in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the same publication indicated that 111 films had been produced. The figures were as follows: 43 women served as producers, 19 as directors, 24 as screenwriters and 20 as cinematographers.
Of the 10,991 people involved in film production, 45 percent were women. “In the cinema there have always been women. They did the field production, since the directors preferred to work with them, perhaps because we had a different sense of responsibility or organized ourselves differently”, recalls Tita Lombardo, producer of loves dogs and New order.
María Novaro and Tita Lombardo belong to the generation that paved the way for today’s filmmakers. To Soco Aguilar, producer of The legend of the Nahualaand Lila Avilés, director and screenwriter of the chambermaid, they fell on a path in which the battles were waged on the creative plane. “Discrimination against women reached the point where they said that a woman could not carry the boxes, so they could not even be camera assistants,” Lombardo clarifies.
For his part, Novaro remembers that when he Lola, the director of the union asked her: “What has given you old women to want to make movies?” “That guy telling me that was enough for me to do the movie without the union,” he says. Neither Avilés nor Aguilar, on the other hand, had to go through similar episodes. “There were hierarchies and I had to work harder than others who were at my level to earn my credibility,” says Aguilar, the only animated feature film producer in Mexico. For Lila Avilés, the jump to directing came naturally, after getting involved in different projects as a make-up artist, costume designer, actress and assistant director, among other roles.
THE AWARDS AND MEXICAN FILMMAKERS IN 2020
The path of women’s participation in films made in Mexico has been tortuous, although in recent years interesting changes have emerged in the scene.
IN MEXICO:
97 prizes were awarded to 88 women
ABROAD:
49 prizes were awarded to 25 women
THE MOST AWARDED FILMMAKERS:
Fernanda Valadez, for No particular signs (14 awards), followed by Ana Laura Calderón (mesquite heart) and Yulene Olaizola (tragic jungle) with 4 each.
THREE ESSENTIAL MEXICAN WOMEN
While it’s hard to pick just a handful of movies created by women, this list complements the films we mention in this article.
01. COME BACK (2016)
Terror. Director: Isabel Lopez.
By the way, in addition to sweeping several horror festivals, the film was praised by Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King.
02. NIGHT BEAUTIES (2016)
Documentary film. Director: Maria Jose Cuevas.
It’s about three Mexican vedettes from the 70s, who reflect on beauty and old age in an endearing way.
03. SEE RAIN (2006)
Short film. Director: Elizabeth Miller.
It is one of the Cannes Palms d’Or that Mexican cinema can boast and the only one that a Mexican filmmaker has won.
When I made Lola, which is about the life of a single mother, some colleagues told me that it wasn’t about anything. There was confusion among men when it came to receiving the female narrative
“When I made Lola, which is about the life of a single mother, some colleagues told me that it wasn’t about anything. There was confusion among men when it came to receiving the female narrative.”- María Novato
Looking at the future
For María Novaro, the women on the screen are no longer an object or a selfless mother, but today they have another type of presence and have their own voice. “There are no longer stereotypes, but a diversity of proposals, although of course there are still women who suffer,” she explains. “The cinema is portraying all those women who are in bad conditions, but there are more films that narrate other women in other latitudes. What I love is that the proposal is broader, more diverse and very complex”.
“Making movies goes beyond being men or women. What we are going to see is a human experience. For me, the basics are the stories and that women see themselves reflected in the leading roles is vital”, Aguilar remarks. “It is also important that the stories reflect another type of man, an empathetic one, who is not only moved by testosterone. Thus, audiences will have other models to follow. I think we can tell that.”
Right now, Tita Lombardo is working on a project in which women hold 70 percent of the creative positions, something that excites her. “It is a very interesting phenomenon. I don’t know where it takes us. Sometimes a little testosterone is needed, so I try to find a balance. I am in favor of women developing, but we cannot close the space only to us, ”she comments.
María Novaro believes that the real challenge facing Mexican filmmakers today is in the way they tell their stories. The director assures that the interesting thing will be to see how they are approached so that men begin to recognize the women who are now on the screen. On her side, for Lila Avilés men are also making interesting films and she clarifies that she does not like the term women’s films. “The fact that there are more women in the cinema gives rise and that they do not pigeonhole what we do as women’s cinema, because we can make horror films, documentaries or science fiction,” she says. “As a director, it hurts to be told that you make women’s films as if that type of cinema were different. The important thing is that now the focus is on our side”.
Observing the graphs of Mexican cinema, pronounced peaks and valleys can be seen in terms of film production per year. The pandemic and the government’s withdrawal of support for filmmakers could cause the number of films produced to drop again, but what is not going to change is the participation of women. It is not a trend. It is a point of view that shattered the stereotype of the Mexican woman to give her a variety of stories that are now recognized throughout the world. Something to celebrate, but that has not yet come to an end.