Gringo
Omar and Esperanza return to Monterrey after a doctoral stay in Quebec, while making economic and emotional efforts to stay in Mexico, a job offer comes up in San Antonio, Texas. Standing before unsecure and terror conditions that rein upon the highways in the north of Mexico, Omar will have to drive through the frontier paths and face his rough past, his violent present and the helpless future of his family and country.
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JOSE LUIS SOLISDirector
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JOSE LUIS SOLISWriter
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Damian CanoProducer
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JFernando Alvarez RebeillKey Cast
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Project Type:Feature
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Genres:Drama
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Runtime:1 hour 21 minutes
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Completion Date:May 22, 2015
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Production Budget:800,000 USD
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Country of Origin:Mexico
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Country of Filming:Mexico
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Language:Spanish
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Shooting Format:35mm
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Aspect Ratio:2.35:1
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Film Color:Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:No
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Official selections: 1. Switzerland Indie Film Festival 2015 2. Hermosillo International Film Festival 2015 3. Canada Independent Film festival 2016 4. Los Angeles CineFest 2016 5. Lisbon International Film Festival 2016 6. North Wales International Film Festival 2016 7. Lumiere CinemAvvenire Film Festival Rome 2016 8. World Festival of Emerging Cinema Trinidad y Tobago 2016 9. Machetanz Film Festival Alaska 2016 10. Rodando Film Festival San Luis Potosí 2016 11. Colossus Film Festival Greece 2016 12. European International Film Festival St. Petersburg 2016 13. Barcelona Planet Film Festival 2016 14. Silveron International Film Festival Tornoto 2016 15. Guanajuato International Film Festival 2016 16. San Antonio International Film Festival 2016 17. Rivne International Film Festival Ukraine 2016 18. Chicago Avant Edge Film Festival 2016 19. Corpus Christi Mundo de Sueños Film Festival 2016 20. Monterrey International Film Festival 2016 (Special Gala) 21. San Pedro Artfest 2016 22. Colima International Film Festival 2016 Awards: 1. Moscow Film Festival 2016: winner best feature film 2. Lyon International Film Festival 2016: winner best photography 3. CreActive International Open Film Festival Bangladesh 2016: winner award of recognition, Debut Feature Film Section 4. Sydney Independent Film Festival 2016: Special Jury Award 5. Frame by Sound Festival 2016: Best Feature Film
Theater and film director, writer, screenwriter, producer and cultural promoter, alongside with his academic development within the humanities, art and communication areas. He received a Bachelor of Humanities with a major in Social Sciences and Law by Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León (UANL-1990). He obtained a Master of Fine Arts on stage direction and dramaturgy by Tulane University (U.S.A. 1995-98). Post graduate studies on digital filmmaking at University of California at Berkeley (2003). He was awarded with numerous grants and fellows on artistic development included The National Endowment of the Arts of México in two different periods. He has published short fiction and poetry on several magazines, newspapers and literary anthologies. He acted as cultural promoter on the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León Office of Cultural Affairs (1992-94) and subsequently was Chair of the Cultural Affairs Office of the State of Nuevo León Institute of Services and Cultural Programs of the Federal Government Workers.1994-95. As an educator he taught Undergraduate and Graduate courses in the Literature and Communications Departments at UANL, also undergraduate and graduate courses of Filmmaking at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM), in addition he has collaborated as assistant professor and visiting scholar at Tulane University, University of California at Berkeley and Universidad Don Bosco on El Salvador. Has published the books: (with Eduardo Antonio Parra and Mario Núñez) La vida real. La transformación de tres cuentos en guiones cinematográficos/ The Real Life: Transformation of three short stories into screenplays (Monterrey: UANL press, October 2008), Vislumbrar la Nada: Guionistas de cortometraje en Nuevo León y su testimonio de lo intangible/ Foreseeing Nothingness: screenwriters of Nuevo León (Monterrey: National Endowment of the Arts press, 2006);Las Bicicletas/The Bicycles (Monterrey: National Endowment of the Arts press, 2005).
In the summer of 2014 he wrote, produced and directed his first feature film: “Gringo”, the filmmaking project received the State of Nuevo León award for best screenplay and later on the National Endowment of the Arts production award, the movie is actually in the postproduction stage and it is planned to participate in international festivals during 2015.
Actually he is the Program Director of the Philosophy, Sociology, Literature and Humanistic Studies Bachelor’s Degrees at Universidad de Monterrey.
“Gringo” is a cinematographic project which expose from the precarious situation of a young couple how the civility, the rule of law and modus vivendi in Mexico become sudden and increasingly in an everyday absurdity ruled by violence, fear and human fragility. Far from illustrate violence, the goal is to show how common citizens live their lives throughout Mexico “War of Drugs”.
The film shows a history of obliged exiles from the emotional, work, familiar and territorial position. This is an intimal portrait of a young couple that shows unemployment, violence and obliged alienation to the longed-for and loved, throughout three days of their lives, when they returned to Mexico after finishing their post-doctoral studies in Quebec; they was not able to find a job, but what they find is an intimidate society and an absurd social break.
This project raises from the desire to tell from the north of Mexico, what the people who lives there experience in their everyday lives. More than a film about what is happening our intention is to portrait how we are living. “Gringo is the intimate history of a generation Y couple and their personal desires. They only wanted a job however, they only got a violent and misconceived “War against drugs”.