TADPOLES - Thesis film

fter more than a year and a half, finally, we are relaunching the filming of my thesis film with which I will be concluding my studies at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Film School (ENAC, previously CUEC).

This work addresses the peculiar relationship between a child and his schizophrenic uncle. Everything takes place in Ruben's house, a 10 year old that lives with his uncle Pepo and his grandmother. Those two, seem to develop in the same plane, different from that in which the grandma, from whom they are both dependent, thrives. Madness is prowling and with it, an absurd desire of possessing stirs up in the boy.

This short film will be shot in Morelos, a state south of Mexico City, and will combine live action with some animated elements. The University lends us the material equipment to complete the film, however, other expenses, such as transportation, art design expenditures, food (they happen to be voracious eaters!), lodging and other tech costs, such as, hard drives, adapters, batteries and cables, have to be covered by me. That's the reason why I am coming to you.

And to make it more interesting, I got the support of two local artists that will help with to enrich the campaign rewards, in exchange of your valuable support. Learn more about them at the bottom of this page.

But first, let me introduce to you the cast of Tadpoles:

ELLIOT YOUALI FLORES GARCÍA

Cuernavaca, Morelos, 2009.

Since a very young age, he has been in contact with art and acting, attending several puppet and actors theater plays, in the context of different State festivals. But he has also participated in Nativity and Day of Spring representations.

He has taken courses and workshops of puppetry, theatre and sculpture at the Centro Cultural Infantil La Vecindad. His ever increasing interest for acting, has pushed him to start attending to professional casting calls.

ALBERTO TRUJILLO

He starts his acting career in 1990, but it's not until 1999 that he begins to act for cinema and television. Three years later he also becomes involved in film production, reconciling it with writing and directing. In 1993, he helps in the foundation of La Casona del Teatro, a space for theatre in Morelia, Michoacan, wherein, in a year, he produces and acts on several plays.

In 2002 he produces, for Fonambules , the first Body Make-up Meeting, at the Museo Universitario del Chopo; an assembly of painters, make-up artists, actors, musicians and dancers, with the common goal of creating ephemeral art on the skin. The following year, he gets the same event off the ground but, this time, at the Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico.

He is credited as the protagonist in award-wining projects, such a Tierra y Pan, winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Halley, rewarded in Sitges in 2013, El Ocaso de Juan, which was awarded the Ariel in 2017, Dragon, from 2018 and La Asuncion de Lucia (in post production). Some of the films he has produced are Venganza Cumplida (2004), Ismael, (2010), premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, 165 días en Cuarentena and Sin Alma. His directing and scriptwriting credits include El Cartero, the short film Rojo and the series Lucia y la Guerra, currently in development.

REGINA FLORES RIBOT

Mexico City, 1953. She studied dance at The Place, London School of Contemporary Dance and Theater in London, England. There, she got UK's National Dance Award for Cien Años de Soledad, choreographed by Marcela Aguilar. Among her awards as soloist, the ones obtained in Barcelona and Cologne, for Octavio Paz' Temporal, choreographed by Gilberto Ruiz Lang, stand out. She diversifies her studies, becoming an alumnus in French Literature, at the Sorbone, in Paris; and turning into a Tai Chi Chuan master under the tutelage of Claudio Romanini and Moy Gin Ying, in Brazil. She studied at La Casa del Teatro and at the French Lycee, wherein she directed innumerable theatre plays.

She has also acted in various theatre plays, among them, Manada, dramaturgy and direction by Luis Eduardo Yee, Yo es eso que no soy (Teatro Bola de Carne), directed by Bernardo Gamboa, Café Des_K_feinado and Morir o no morir (dramaturgy of Sergi Beibel), both directed by Antón Araiza, Ensayo sobre débiles, directed by Alberto Villareal, El último arrecife en tercera dimensión, directed by Mariana Gándara and Todo lo que está a mi lado, directed by Fernando Rubio.

Her TV / streaming work includes he stellar role in the soap-opera Aprendamos juntos, directed by Arturo Ripstein and Sergio Olhovich, the series Capadocia, El Mariachi, La Casa de Las Flores, and her co-protagonist role in HBO Max's Amarres. In cinema, she has credits in Las niñas bien, by Alejandra Márquez Abella, Uzi, by Pepe Valle, Nuevo Orden, by Michel Franco, La Camarera, by Lila Avilés and Distancias Cortas, by Alejandro Guzmán Álvarez. She has starred in short films, as well, such as Pancho, by Gabriel Egea Barbosa, O y S, by Natalia Bermudez, El Balcón by Juan Martín Torruco, Mi abuela, by Juan José Rojas, En las olas by Mont Carver, La ballena más solitaria, by Álvaro Dobaño, Cambio de aire, by Fabián Bonino, Camino amarillo, by Eduardo Hernández, among many others.

Finally, as a performance artist, she's been in Eurídice o no, directed by Gerardo Trejo Luna, La exposición se desvaneció sin dejar rastro, directed by Román Ondak, at the Museo Tamayo, El Organillo by Anri Sala, at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, Henrietta Moraes, at the Ex Teresa Arte Actual, in the context of O. Dibujo en Escena, directed by Mahoalli Nassourou and in different interventions at the Festival de Teatro para el fin del mundo, in Tampico, Tamaulipas.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And here's to you part of the humble crew that will be behind the camera:

Ulysse de Maximy - Script, production, direction & animation

He obtained a BFA in Film Animation from Concordia University (Montreal) and is in the process of getting his BA in Cinema at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's National Film School, formerly known as CUEC. During his studies in Canada, he was the recipient of an academic scholarship in animation, offered conjointly by the University and the BMO Financial Group. His short animation How are you spending your time? was rewarded at the 9th International One-Minute Short Film Festival, organized by the Autonomous Metropolitan University. He served as an animator in the short Pozolli, national first place at Nespresso Talents 2019, and in the short film A Wooden Toy Dreamed of Paper Boats, recently nominated to the Ariel Awards 2021. He was in charge of the production of the short Vera, which received a Special Mention from the Jury at the 2020 Morelia International Film Festival; and was the executive for the short At last, the sea, produced by the Mexican Cinematography Institute, and winner of Best Narrative Short at the San Diego Latino Film Festival.

Ro Mejía - Cinematography

He specialized in Cinematography at the Autonomous University of Mexico's National Film School. Among the various fiction and documentary projects he has photographed, Yin Yang, Matinee and Canis Familiaris, stand out and have been recognized in different international film festivals. He has also been in charge of the cinematography and still photography of different kinds of artistic and commercial endeavors.

In 2018, he directs the short film En el fondo del agua, part of the KinoStart competition at the Monterrey International Film Festival; and in 2011 he attended the specialization course in Digital Photography at the Escuela Activa de Fotografía. He has taken several workshops in experimental cinema, video-art, video installation and 16mm film and his work has been exhibited in diverse venues, such as the Centro de Cultura Digital, the Centro Cultural Universitario, Cuarto Oscuro Magazine and galleries in Mexico City.

Juan Ordorica - Asistencia de dirección

Scholarship recipient of a one-year program in screenwriting at the Vancouver Film School.

He studied filmmaking at the Autonomous University of Mexico's National Film School (previously, CUEC-UNAM). He has been a director, screenwriter and editor to several feature and short films which have been selected at various international film festivals.

His short film Vera received the Special Mention from the Jury at the Morelia International Film Festival, in 2020.

Monserrat Pineda Choperena - Art co-direction

She graduated in 2012 from the Autonomous University of Mexico's Fine Arts School, where she specialized in sculpture and painting. Her work as a plastic artist has taken part in exhibitions in varios cultural venues, such as the Museo Universitario del Chopo and the Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco.

She attended the specialized course in Set Design at the Academy of San Carlos, and in 2019 she took the specialized course in Art Direction at UNAM's National Film School.

Her credits as Art Director and Prop Designer span a multitude of projects ranging from cinema to advertising, among which the commercials for brands of the likes of Pepsico, Rappi, Gamesa, Castrol and RollPlay; and the short films Los jotos no van al cielo, winner of the Mexican Pitching Competition at the Shorts Mexico Film Festival, ¿Y si no estamos perdidos? and the videoclip Boo, stand out.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Finally, the ones who will generously help me to enrich the campaign rewards:

MARIANA MENDIVIL

Filmmaker and collage artist. She studied filmmaking at the National School of Cinematographic Arts of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, (2016-2020) and film script in Bande à Part in Barcelona (2015). She won best short with a mobile device at the 7th Metropolitan Festival of One-Minute Shortfilm and Short Narratives Festival for Trayecto (2018). Fellow of the Program to Stimulate Artistic Creation and Development of the State Fund of Culture and the Arts of Sonora (PECDA-FECAS) 2017-2018.

Collective exhibition at Bibart Biennale Internazionale in Bari, Italy (2021). Cover for the magazine Este País,number 350: Nuestro Estado de Derecho (2020). Her collages have been published in international magazines such as Cults of Life: Silence (2020) and Semioculus X: Eyes (2020) and in the books Art Doesn’t Have to Match your Sofa, by Everydaypaper (2020) and Visione e intuzione, la racione dell’arte, by the publisher Lino-o-type (2021). She participates with four works in the catalog of the Maroma Gallery.

Her stop motion collage animations have been commissioned by Weekndr.tv for an interview with Cora Novoa, music artist from Barcelona; Salvador el Unicornio, musician signed by Universal Studios for a national tour; Danza UNAM for the International Dance Day 2019.

https://www.marianamendivil.com/

TORO GARIBAY

Mexico City, 1989.

Interdisciplinary artist and videographer. He graduated from the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking (ENPEG "La Esmeralda") in 2017. His work has been exhibited in Austria and Iceland, as well as in museums such as the Ex Teresa Arte Actual, the Museo de la Ciudad de Querétaro and the gallery llorar_.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!