Patrica Riggen's Mexico City

By Patricia Riggen

Patricia Riggen's debut feature Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna) has been released both in the United States and Mexico (where still in theaters it passed the mark for the fifth highest grossing Mexican film). Riggen grew up in Guadalajara, Mexico where she started off in a career in journalism, before moving to Mexico City to enter the world of film. Working with various productions, she soon became head of the short film department for the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE). She moved to New York City to obtain her MFA in film from Columbia, making two award-winning student shorts, before writing and direct Under the Same Moon (La Misma Luna).

You were raised in Guadalajara. When did you come to Mexico City?

I moved there after college when I was about 22, around 1996. I was working in film doing a little bit of everything — producing, writing screen plays — and then I got involved running the short film department at the Mexican Film Institute (Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografia — IMCINE). For us the Film Institute is the center of Mexican cinema. Many films, even those with private investments, get help from IMCINE. I ran the Short Film department from 1997 to 1998 there.

That was the start of a very exciting time for Mexican film. How were projects chosen for short films?

It was done through a jury. We would evaluate the screenplay, the budget and anything else, and then decide to fund entirely or partially. During the time I got to work with some talented filmmakers, many who went on to make feature films. I help produce a short film by Carlos Salcés called En el espejo del cielo (In the Mirror of the Sky) which went on to win prizes in Berlin and Cuba. Salcés went on to make a well-received feature Zurdo in 2003. I also worked on Gael García Bernal's first film De tripas, corazón by director Antonio Urrutia. That was nominated for an Oscar [for Best Short Film, Live Action]. Urrutia went on to make a Spanish feature Serious Killer (Asesino en serio) [that was executive produced by Guillermo del Toro].

What sort of cinema culture was there?

When I was teenager living in Guadalajara, there was one video store that everyone went to. That was back when there were laser discs. Guillermo del Toro used to hang out there. There was also Guadalajara film festival there.

But Cineteca Nacional in Mexico City as the real place to see films. It's part of the Mexican Film Institute and has six screens, a bookstore and a cafeteria. This was heaven for me. It would show foreign films, but also Mexican films. I would go with friends or meet people at Cineteca, and then go out for beers and talk all night about film.

Do you remember what films you saw during that time that really changed you?

Two that had a real influence were Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing and Zhang Yimou's Raise the Red Lantern. Also Fernando E. Solanas's Sur.

Were their magazines that everyone read?

Film criticism has never been very strong in Mexico — thank God! I remember there was a really fun magazine called vi cine — one of the critics from it is now running the Cineteca. I read it almost like a comic book. They were so vicious and funny when they would trash movies — especially American ones. Now, being a filmmaker and getting reviewed, I am not so comfortable finding that funny.

How did Mexican cinema change for you?

When I was young we'd had a wonderful film industry that was destroyed by government policies. There were lots of terrible films, which we called cine de ficheras — fichera being a token, like what a prostitute might dance for. We had had a long period of darkness, like it was the middle ages of film. But things started to change when I was finishing college. The first Mexican film in a mainstream theater was Gabriel Retes El Bulto. I saw it while I was still in Guadalajara and wrote an article on it. That was the start of a very exciting period, and it's still going on.

You are one of the few women directors. Are there many women filmmakers in Mexico right now?

Before I even decided to be a director, I did my thesis film on women directors in Mexico. At time there were only four and I interviewed each of them and analyzed exactly what was the problem. But now there are only three more — even though two of Mexico's most successful films were directed by women. It is still very difficult to be a woman in the business. But making films is truly my calling.