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Event Type:
Lecture/presentation and film screening
Intro:
Join us for a presentation of Mexican genre cinema guided by Mexico’s Morbido Film Festival head programmer Abraham Castillo Flores at Chicago Filmmakers on Saturday, March 28th. Delving beyond luchadores, Abraham unearths Mexican vampires, ghosts and monsters that fomented a distinctive but barely acknowledged corner of our cinematic consciousness. After the presentation we will be screening a brand new DCP of the amazing film THE SHIP OF MONSTERS directed by Rogelio A. González.
Description:
For decades, Mexican fantasy and horror cinema hid in the shadows, wearing a luchador mask, surviving budgets tainted by economic gloom, holding vampires with a nylon thread, receiving the scorn of nearsighted critics and consumption by audiences sunk into tongue-in-cheek appreciation.
But things have changed. Throughout the first 19 years of the 21st century there has been a clear rise in the amount, quality and risk found in Mexican horror and fantasy cinema. It is not by chance that today, in the midst of a horrifying reality, Mexican genre films enjoy popularity, freedom and sometimes, profitability. As if that were not enough, our beloved alpha genre warrior — Guillermo Del Toro — has been knighted by Hollywood.
Who would have thought that stories filled with wailing legends from our pre-Hispanic past, starved female vampires, Aztec mummies, monk ghosts, child practitioners of the dark arts and tropicalized sci-fi queens would become part of our cultural heritage?
We will revisit the origins of Mexican fantasy and horror cinema and examine its development through the 20th Century and the start of the 21st. In parallel, we will dissect national legends and traumas that have been continuously reinterpreted by our national filmmakers that stand as a reaction to the tragic reality that Mexico is now experiencing.
THE SHIP OF MONSTERS:
We are incredibly excited to be presenting a brand new DCP of the classic THE SHIP OF MONSTERS (aka: La Nave De Los Monstruos) and we are grateful of support of Fundación Televisa for allowing us to bring this new DCP to Chicago! The DCP is in it’s original Spanish dialogue with English subtitles.
THE SHIP OF MONSTERS synopsis:
Two Venusian women, Gamma (Lepe) and Beta (Velázquez), are sent on a mission by their queen (Consuelo Frank) to search for males to repopulate the planet. Along the way, they and their servant, Tor the robot, acquire a colorful array of male extraterrestrial creatures in their “ship of monsters”, including Martian prince Tagual, Uk the cyclops, Utirr the spider and skeletal Zok. Landing in Mexico, Gamma and Beta become enamored with singing cowboy Lauriano (Eulalio González).
THE SHIP OF MONSTERS clip:
About the Presenter:
Abraham Castillo Flores has been Head Programmer at Mexico’s Morbido Fest since 2010, where he curates and presents exotic and outrageous films to audiences hungry for intense emotions. A Mexican offspring of the 1970s obsessed with the power and paradoxical beauty of genre stories imprinted onto celluloid and pixels. Graduated with honors from the School of Visual Arts, NYC with more than 20 years experience in the film industry and academia. Abraham currently lives in Mexico City where he dedicates his every breath to the promotion, restructuring, study and presentation of genre films.
This event is co-presented with our good friends over at The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies. Check out their website for other great presentations around the world. Click onto their name above for more information.
Fundación Televisa: Televisa S.A. de C.V. All Rights Reserved. We appreciate the support of Fundación Televisa
When and where you might ask? Here is all the information:
Date: Saturday, March 28th, 2020
Time: 7:00 p.m.
Location:
Chicago Filmmakers
5720 N. Ridge Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60660
773-293-1447
www.chicagofilmmakers.org
Price: $10
