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Chairman of the Jury Arturo Ripstein (Director, Mexico) |
On the very day of his arrival in Japan, "The Mt. Fuji of Mexico erupted for the first time in seventy years", says Arturo Ripstein. "The PRI had been in power for seventeen years after the revolution but had to end their regime this summer," smiled the director, himself the cause of "great shakings" in getting Mexican film known to the world, as he elegantly exhaled the smoke of his cigarette.
"When I started filming in the '60s, the Mexican film industry had become decadent after reaching the heights of its glory. All we had were commercial films made in extremely Americanized filmic language. In this situation, a group of young people including myself was working hard to find something new. Of course, it was quite difficult for this group of resisters to find producers. But there is always someone with a different point of view, we and that's how we've been able to continue making films to this day. Only two or three of us are still around, but I think that as Mexicans this is our destiny, to be neighbors with the United States. Young directors here see working in Mexico as a kind of audition for Hollywood. The crisis of Mexico is eternal. Which means that even now, I still work with the same state of mind as I had when I made my debut." Ripstein emphasized that is why he hopes to "Discover diverse film makers" in the TOKYO FILMeX competition, and claims that the only advice he can give young directors is to "Continue working and don't wish for too much." "I hope that this festival will open the door for us to experience a colorful diversity of films isolated by the mainstream of Hollywood film. I try to support the kind of films that will give me the strong will to continue my own work. I try desperately to protect those things that rouse my interest in my daily life, and I intend to keep this attitude as a member of the jury." The past engraved in the deep creases of his gentle, fearless face, Ripstein talked about his determination in competition judging. "The chairman of the jury is a very complicated position. There is no such thing as a scientific equation for measuring a good film. So I think that my role is to encourage the members of jury to vote for that work which each of them found great, and to support their beliefs to the end. Ultimately, we'll need to resolve things democratically, but personally I want to keep debating until the last minute." Ripstein's Deep Crimson, one of the director's representative works, recently premiered in Tokyo. Mexico's "great shaking" has brought its seismographics not only to FILMeX but also to Tokyo. "Filmmaking is humanity's most extreme egoism. However, I believe that the more personal and egoistic it gets, the more one shares with others." Text: Takashi Goto
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