#MacabroXVII Press Release: Programme and Activities

Press release

August 6, 2018

The seventeenth edition of Macabro will take place from August 21 to September 2 in 18 venues across Mexico City
It opens with the screening of the film Nightmare Cinema at the Teatro de la Ciudad “Esperanza Iris”
This year's tributes are dedicated to Mick Garris, creator of the series “Masters of Horror,” and to Tina Romero, marking 40 years since her participation in Alucarda.
Special screening from the Permanencia Voluntaria archive
Industry activities will be presented on Macabro Day, along with the dates for the Macabro Lab call for entries.
25 international guests will attend the Macabro feast.

Macabro, Mexico City's International Horror Film Festival, celebrates its 17th anniversary and announces the film programme, as well as the activities that will take place in Mexico City from August 21 to September 2.

Macabro has prepared a diverse cinematic feast this year that wanders between film classics celebrating anniversaries and takes a look at the most contemporary genre cinema. But we also want to pause to talk about and highlight the importance of genre creators coming together to share their new projects on Industry Day. (Macabro Day)

As always, Macabro, is grateful for the collaboration of a group of festival friends who make it possible—film buffs, journalists, researchers, institutions, sponsors, foundations, volunteers, and a committed, joyful team that every year makes this Festival infiltrate many corners of Mexico City.

The macabre summer will be, as it has for 17 years, a coven that brings World Horror cinema to the audience already waiting for us. It will also be the space to pay tribute to the greats of cinema, showcasing retrospectives and tributes to the masters who forged the history of horror cinema. Without further ado, here is the feast to come:

Opening

The festival opens on August 21 at 8:00 p.m. at the Teatro de la Ciudad “Esperanza Iris” with the feature film Nightmare Cinema |Dir. Alejandro Brugués, Joe Dante, Mick Garris, Ryuhei Kitamura, David Slade.| Screenplay: Sandra Becerril, Alejandro Brugués, Lawrence C. Connolly, Mick Garris, Richard Christian Matheson, David Slade.|United States | 2018 | 119 min. With the attendance of Mick Garris and Sandra Becerril

The creation of Nightmare Cinema

Led by Mick Garris and Sandra Becerril

In this talk, Mick and Sandra will informally tell us the details behind the creation of the anthology Nightmare Cinema and the work of all the horror masters gathered there.

Closing

The awards ceremony will take place on September 2 at 6:00 p.m. at the Museo de la Ciudad de México (José María Pino Suárez 30, Centro, 06060 Ciudad de México, CDMX) and will close with the film Blood Fest | Dir. Owen Egerton | United States | 2018 | 92 min. The director will be in attendance.

IBERO-AMERICAN HORROR SELECTION

Luciferina | Gonzalo Calzada | Screenplay: Gonzalo Calzada | Argentina| 2018 |114 min
After the lethargy | Dir. Marc Carreté | Screenplay: Marc Carreté | Spain| 2018 | 82 min
A mata negra | Rodrigo Aragão| Screenplay: Rodrigo Aragão, Alexandre Callari |Brazil-|2018 | 98 min
Mis demonios nunca juraron soledad | Jorge Leyva | Screenplay: Jorge Leyva | Mexico| 2017 | 90 min
Framed | Marc Martínez Jordán|Screenplay: Jaume Cuspinera, Marc Martínez J|Spain|2017 | 80 min
Destino das sombras|Dir. Klaus´Berg Nippes Bragança |Screenplay: Klaus´Berg Nippes Bragança |Brazil |2017|100 min
No canto do olho | Dir. Sérgio Gomes | Screenplay: Sérgio Gomes | Brazil | 2018|104 min.

INTERNATIONAL HORROR SELECTION

Vidar Vampyr | Thomas Aske Berg and Fredrik Waldeland | Screenplay: Thomas Aske Berg and Fredrik Waldeland | Norway | 2017 | 83 min
Christmas Blood | Reinert Kiil | Screenplay: Reinert Kiil|| Norway| 2017|104 min
Hostile | Director: Mathieu Turi |Screenplay: Mathieu Turi |France |2017| 83 min
The Crescent | Seth A. Smith | Screenplay: Darcy Spidle | Canada |2017 | 99 min
Knuckleball | Michael Peterson | Screenplay: Kevin Cockle, Michael Peterson| Canada |2018 | 89 min
Kyrsyä –Tuftland | Roope Olenius |Screenplay: Roope Olenius, Neea Viitamäki |Finland| 2017| 89 min
Ruin me | Preston DeFrancis |Screenplay: Trysta A. Bissett, Preston DeFrancis |US |2017 | 87 min
The Witch files | Kyle Rankin | Screenplay: Larry Blamire, Kyle Rankin |United States| 2018 | 87 min
Living space | Steven Spiel | Screenplay: Steven Spiel | Australia| 2018| 80 min

TRIBUTES AND RETROSPECTIVES

MICK GARRIS

Mick Garris is an American writer, director, and producer, best known for his adaptations of Stephen King's work and for creating the series Masters of Horror. In his youth he was a film and music critic. In 1977 he was hired as a receptionist at George Lucas's newly formed company, Star Wars Corporation, and shortly after created a talk show in which he interviewed filmmakers such as John Landis, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg.

He worked on the making-of documentaries for films such as Scanners, The Howling, Halloween II, The Thing, and Videodrome. In 1982 he began his rising career as a screenwriter on Amazing Stories, Tales from the Crypt, The Fly II, Psycho IV, and the television series She-Wolf of London.

He began directing adaptations and original Stephen King stories: Sleepwalkers; he followed with the miniseries The Stand, an adaptation of King's novel, the miniseries The Shining, Riding the Bullet, and Desperation.

In 2005 he brought together a series of legendary horror directors to create the anthology Masters of Horror, in which he took part as concept creator, executive producer, and director.

This year, Mick Garris will be part of the Macabro Coven, where he will present two of his most iconic films, as well as the Latin American premiere of his latest production, the anthology Nightmare Cinema.

Sleepwalkers |Dir. Mick Garris | Screenplay, Stephen King.| United States | 1992 | 91 min
Critters 2 |Dir. Mick Garris.|Screenplay, David Twohy, Mick Garris.| United States | 1998 | 86 min

SPIRITS OF '68

1968 was a year that brought changes and ruptures to the world, society, and politics—from the Summer of Love to student protests—and 50 years later we still recognize the force of an era that also left its mark on film. In the horror genre, great masterpieces were produced that, on one hand, showed the power of great auteurs like Fellini or Bergman expressing the darkest side of human beings in indisputable works of art. And on the other, the birth of a subgenre that showed the world for the first time the monster that depicts the depersonalization and mass-production of humanity in the most brutal way: the zombie.

That same year we find the greatest splendor of B movies, moving from the zombie to exploitation cinema with one of the most iconic characters of fantastic cinema: Barbarella, and her performer Jane Fonda, whose mark on Western pop culture is still palpable today. In Mexico, a comic-book heroine with attributes similar to Barbarella would appear—less impactful, but with plenty of sensuality—our own bat-girl: la Mujer Murciélago.

50 years after the first screening of such titles, at Macabro we couldn't let this important anniversary pass. Welcome back, spirits of 1968.

Night of the Living Dead | George A. Romero |Screenplay: John A. Russo, George A. Romero |United States | 1968 | 96 min. Film introduced by Ezzio Avendaño
Hour of the Wolf | Ingmar Bergman | Screenplay: Ingmar Bergman | Sweden | 1968 | 90 min . Film introduced by Mauricio Chernovetzky
Spirits of the death | Federico Fellini, Louis Malle, Roger Vadim | Screenplay: Federico Fellini, Roger Vadim, Pascal Cousin, Louis Malle, Clement Biddle Wood, Daniel Boulanger, Bernardino Zapponi | Italy / France | 1968 | 121 min
Barbarella | Roger Vadim | Screenplay: Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Claude Brulé, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates | France / Italy | 1968 | 98 min
Kuroneko | Kaneto Shindô | Screenplay: Kaneto Shindô | Japan | 1968 | 99 min
La Mujer Murciélago | René Cardona | Screenplay: Alfredo Salazar | Mexico | 1968| 80 min. Film introduced by Viviana García Besné

MEXICO MACABRO

This year's selection of Mexican films includes:

México Bárbaro 2

Dir. Abraham Sánchez, Carlos Meléndez, Christian Cueva, Diego Cohen, Fernando Urdapilleta, Lex Ortega, Michelle Garza, Ricardo Farias, Sergio Tello| Screenplay: Abraham Sánchez, Carlos Meléndez, Christian Cueva, Diego Cohen, Fernando Urdapilleta, Lex Ortega, Michelle Garza, Ricardo Farías, Sergio Tello |Mexico| 2017 |95 min.

Nine Mexican directors come together to tell the most brutal, ruthless, and strange traditions and legends of our country.

Festivals: Horrorant Film Festival 'Fright Nights' 2018; Fanstaspoa 2017.

Santo contra la hija de Frankenstein (La Hija de Frankenstein)

Dir. Miguel M. Delgado Cinematográfica Calderón/Azteca Films Screenplay: Fernando Osés |Mexico | 1971 |97 min

Presented by: Archivo Fílmico Permanencia Voluntaria.

Alucarda, la hija de las tinieblas

Dir. Juan López Moctezuma| Screenplay: Alexis Arroyo, Tita Arroyo, Juan López Moctezuma, Yolanda López Moctezuma based on Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu | Mexico | 1978 | 88 min

With the attendance of Tina Romero

PANORAMA MACABRO

Our bet on contemporary cinema:

Panorama Macabro special short film programmes

The festival dedicates this space to showcasing the work of Mexican filmmakers specializing in genre cinema. In previous years, short film programmes by Gigi Saul Guerrero, Abraham Sánchez, and César García have been presented.

Lo más macabro de Caostica, Vol. 3

Once again, the rat-kids of the Caostica International Short Film and Music Video Festival of Bilbao pay the venerated Macabro the homage it deserves.

At the ceremony, 9 video-psalms from the most remote corners of the bizarre universe will be screened in a homily christened as “Lo más Macabro de Caostica, Vol. 3”.

The faithful who make their way there will receive a package of indulgences, a cauldron with a view of Beelzebub, as well as a Metrobús ticket straight to the gates of Hell. The infidels who do not make their way there will regret it for the rest of their miserable existence.

Procine special programme “Day of the Dead”

Macabro presents, in collaboration with Procine, the short film programme “Day of the Dead,” a compilation of the winners of the 2017 call for entries, celebrating one of the most deeply rooted traditions in our country. Made up of 10 short films.

Panorama Macabro Features: Feature films out of competition

Macabro Extremo

This is our most extreme offering, where we'll put you to the test with the most over-the-top cinema

Festivals: Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre, Nox Film Festival

Macabro Docs

This time, the section dedicated to documentary film presents 3 Spanish-language titles

Cine de guerrilla | Director: Jaime Zaragoza Medialdea |Screenplay: Jaime Zaragoza Medialdea | Spain |70 min

National and international guests

Mick Garris (USA), Fabián Forte (Argentina), Gonzalo Calzada (Argentina), Ale Narváez (Argentina), Lucio Rojas (Chile), JJ Weber (USA), Mike McCutchan (USA), Scott Taylor (USA), Marcel Giroux (Canada), Marc Bertrand (Canada), Rémi Fréchette (Canada), Thomas Aske Berg (Norway), Owen Eggerton (USA), Michael Peterson (Canada), Tina Romero (Mexico), Sinhué F. Benavides (Mexico), Sandra Becerril (Mexico), Leopoldo Laborde (Mexico), Laurette Flores (Mexico), Carlos Meléndez (Mexico), Abraham Sánchez (Mexico), Christian Cueva (Mexico), Diego Cohen (Mexico), Fernando Urdapilleta (Mexico), Lex Ortega (Mexico) , Michelle Garza (Mexico), Ricardo Farias (Mexico), Sergio Tello (Mexico).

Industry and academic activities.

Master Class “Genre Cinema of the Masters of Horror”

Led by Mick Garris

In 60 minutes, Mick Garris will take us through his career, his work with Stephen King and with several masters of Hollywood fantastic cinema, up to the creation of the Masters of Horror series.

Mick Garris is an American writer, director, and producer, best known for his adaptations of Stephen King's work and for creating the Masters of Horror series.

Master Class “How to Produce Genre Cinema and Not Die Trying”

Led by Fabián Forte.

One of the great problems facing genre cinema production in Latin American countries is the lack of financing from private investors and government institutions. In the late 1990s in Argentina, a group of directors who loved genre cinema, eager to make films like the ones that had influenced them, began their careers making low-budget short and feature films; their drive was such that they managed to open doors at their country's film institute to gain access to industrial filmmaking.

Fabián Forte is one of these directors, and he will present a master class on how to make this kind of cinema with and without major financing.

Talk “Introduction to Horror Screenwriting”

Led by Sandra Becerril

Aimed at: General audiences, regardless of background, with or without experience in audiovisual storytelling, interested in developing screenplays from their own writing.

Objective: This course will provide the guidelines for writing a short film, from the originating idea to the first written draft, sequence by sequence. It will also help you get closer to the creation of characters, atmospheres, and dialogue.

Syllabus: Terror, horror, and subgenres; character analysis in classic horror films; character creation; atmosphere creation; dialogue; outline; the sequence; structure; synopsis and plot.

Macabro To Come: Upcoming projects.

EXPIRA is a soon-to-be-released Mexican film, directed by Leopoldo Laborde and produced by Roberto Trujillo.

The opportunity arose to make a commercial horror film. But there is nothing artistically more terrifying than precisely “commercial horror”: cheap scares, obvious stories; predictable characters, situations, and images—pissed-off devils or ghosts, thugs who repent in the third act, posers who always roll their tongue and say the same thing, unimaginative gore, badly done nudity, dizzying plot twists... But why kid myself: horror is the genre I most enjoy filming. Horror is the most creative style in terms of cinematic resources: your whole canvas is ready for visual and narrative shades of gray, actors pushed to their limits, ingenious staging setups, angular framing, suffocating atmospheres, deranged sound design, multichromatic editing... – Leopoldo Laborde.

#VIRAL

Vera Wright, a teenager, manages to hide the truth about a viral video from a fashion blogger and a friend who committed suicide. With the help of her best friend Oliver and a hacker-in-training, Ali, Vera delves into the darkest corners of the Darknet, where she confronts La L3GION, an anonymous cybercult of trolls and sociopaths seemingly responsible for the suicide. Vera gains popularity online and becomes La L3GION's new target. To save her life, she will have to expose its members and fight for honesty in a world where the truth is distorted by Likes, Shares, and Followers.

Series created by: Carlos Meléndez and Mateo García Elizondo

Macabro Lab

This year, Macabro relaunches its Genre Work Creation and Production Lab, the Macabro Lab, with academic activities to be held in partnership with and at the initiative of the Cinetekton Film and Architecture Festival, taking place from September 25 to 29 in the city of Puebla, with the workshop “Production, Direction, and Cinematography Design: Building Atmospheres in Genre Cinema,” in collaboration with the Facultad de Cine and the Escuela de Artes Plásticas y Audiovisuales ARPA, BUAP, and the Facultad de Cine. The call for entries is open and can be found on the official Facebook pages of both Cinetekton (Facebook/Cinetekton) and Macabro Lab (Facebook/MacabroLab).

Likewise, in October the call for entries for the 3rd edition of Macabro Lab will be published, featuring a renewed structure and objectives. The call will be divided into two categories: Short Film Co-production and Genre Feature Film Development. The 3rd edition of Macabro Lab will take place as part of the activities of the 2019 edition of Macabro FICH.

Macabro Lab III will take place with the support of the Facultad de Cine and Mr. Blue.

Special events

Descartes a Kant Showcase

Descartes a Kant is a project originally from Guadalajara, Mexico, characterized by incorporating different artistic disciplines into its musical output, turning its albums into conceptual works and its live shows into a multifaceted staging. Descartes a Kant has distinguished itself by pursuing a stark contrast between melody and dissonance, creating an unusual proposal for the ear, experimenting with various musical genres ranging from Noise, Punk, Cabaret, Pop, Metal, Surf, Lullaby, and Jazz, among other styles.

This year, the Guadalajara-based band is Macabro's musical guest, and in the showcase it will offer as part of the festival's closing, it will present tracks from its most recent album: Victims of Love Propaganda (2017), which stands as the first American release produced by Steve Albini, the legendary engineer who has worked with artists such as Nirvana, Pixies, PJ Harvey, and Helmet, among others. The album reaffirms why Descartes a Kant has become one of the most important experimental rock bands in Latin America.

Descartes a Kant is made up of: Sandrushka Petrova, Dafne Carballo, Ana Cristina Mo, Memo Ibarra, Andro Muñoz, and Jorge Chávez.

Premiere of the music video Burdel Mental directed by Laurette Flores

About the single

Burdel mental is the first single from La gran sociedad de monstruos. A journey into the depths of the mental sewers where the strangest sexual impulses reside.

About the music video

We will enter the mind of a young woman whose imagination runs wild after an unexpected encounter with a mysterious man in a bar. It will be a journey full of sensuality, viscosity, and horror.

About the director

Laurette Flores is passionate about horror and fantastic cinema; her first work in film was as a producer of stop-motion animation with a style comparable to the Quay Brothers.

Dates, venues

The seventeenth edition of Macabro, Mexico City's International Horror Film Festival, will take place from August 21 to September 2 at the venues Teatro de la Ciudad “Esperanza Iris,” Cineteca Nacional, Cinematógrafo del Chopo, Casa del Cine, Museo Archivo de la Fotografía, Casa Refugio Citlaltépetl, Biblioteca de México, Museo de la Ciudad de México, and the alternative FAROs circuit. The cineclubs: Cine Villa Olímpica, Museo de la Luz, Sala Quetzalcóatl, Centro Cultural Xavier Villaurrutia, Circo Volador, and the UTA Bar, throughout the month of August.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank the support of the Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México, the Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía, La Filmoteca de la UNAM, PROCINE CDMX, and the Cineteca Nacional.

We also thank the participation of all the institutions, embassies, cultural centers, distributors, media outlets, and sponsors who, with their professionalism and enthusiasm, make it possible every year for the Festival to reach its audience.

Social Media

www.macabro.mx

Facebook: MacabroFich

Twitter: @macabrofich

Instagram: @macabrofich

HT: #MacabroXVII

Press contact

[email protected]

Press Kit https://www.dropbox.com/s/yv1r96ounhjcuuw/IMAGEN%20MACABRO.jpg?dl=0 (abre en nueva pestaña)

SPONSORS

PARTNER ESTABLISHMENTS

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