Episode 2.9
Interview with Luna Marán, by Stephanie García on Feb. 6th, 2021
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Stephanie (S): Originally a citizen of the Guelatao de Juárez Zapotec Community, Oaxaca, Luna has held four community positions. She has been developing her work and knowledge for more than a decade in a non-academic setting, where gender equality, diversity and communality are transversal axes. Co-founder of the Itinerant Audiovisual Camp (2012-2020), JEQO (2019), Cine Too Lab (2018), Brujazul, among others. She produced the film Los años Azules, winner of more than 10 awards and nominated for best first work at Los Arieles 2018. Director of Me parezco tanto a ti and Tío Yim, “one of the hidden gems of documentary cinema” according to BBC_REEL, and one of the 10 best movies of 2020 according to TimeOutMX. Author of the text “¿Quién apagará los incendios?”, Included in Tsunami 2 edited by Gabriela Jauregui and published by Sexto Piso (2020).
S: Thank you very much Luna, welcome. How are you this morning?
Luna (L): Good, very good, and you?
S: Good, good, thank you very much. Tell us, how is everything? Are you in Mexico City?
L: Yes, I am in Mexico City.
S: Are you in the middle of a project right now?
L: Yes, I am in an editing confinement, I am editing a documentary… So we are in for a very long day.
S: Very good. Well, we thank you very much for attending this invitation. By now I will have read an introduction about you, but we would very much like you to tell us in your own words who Luna is.
L: Well, first of all, thank you very much for the invitation. Lately, I can say that I am an alebrije. The alebrije is a fantastic animal that is made up of different parts of different animals, right? And for a while I have liked the idea of posing as an alebrije, because in a country where so many women are killed every day, the truth is that there is no desire to be a woman. I am a native and resident of the Zapotec Community of Guelatao de Juárez, in the Sierra Norte of the State of Oaxaca.
S: Tell us how you got into art and specifically to cinema.
L: Well, the truth is that the story is very long. In other words, I have been in the audiovisual medium for 25 years and that is just because of where I was born and live today. It is a space, let’s say that it has been a pioneer in the use of communication tools to give a new representation to who we are as Indigenous peoples. So since I was 9 years old, I have been working for television, for the cinema, for the radio, for the photo, right? So really that has already been a little while. And I was kind of lucky to start very small, that is, I was lucky that in my context there was a television station and there were people making movies, and doing radio and radio shows, and making music… so, yes, I kind of grew up within a context of very strong artistic expression, right?
S: How do you in your profession begin determining what is important to you, to pursue, to do, to express?
L: Well, it’s interesting, that is, I think that first there is a very strong captivation as per the image, no? Like I remember being very focused on literal television, right? Very focused on the image and what happened in the stories. I grew up with a lot of telenovelas, right? And I owe a lot to them, my “emotional melodramatic deformation” right? But I think that the, let’s say, the need to say who are you? Or who are they? Right? When you belong to a community, because I have always been, I have always been there, I do feel that artistic creation is an everyday act that makes us different from others, right? It is a lot, then, on the one hand, the coincidence or luck that you have to be within the official validation mechanisms, yeah? But the act of creation, I think, is close to everyone. In other words, there are some who dare to write, dance, paint. Not so much for some, but the impulse to be able to create something from what is moving you, what you are thinking; I think we all have it. And I really like to think of it that way because I think that in a world – not only in Mexico, but in a totally unequal and inequitable world – access to professional training in the arts is, uh, very, very, very limited, no? However, the impulse like to build, to sing, to dance; It is a very natural impulse of every human being and I think it is important to be able to understand it as something everyday, something that we can all do and that the only difference will always be in the access to those training spaces that you may have and therefore, to the validation mechanisms that allow you that professional education.
S: I know that you studied outside of Oaxaca. What led you to decide, eeh, well, to look to another state for your education? And this transition of going away from where you are from, and from your family, was it complex, or did it just happen as a normal transition?
L: I don’t know exactly where I got the assurance that when I was 15 years old I was going to leave my house and go to study arts, because it is very clear to me. In other words, I was in high school and I knew that I was going to leave Guelatao when I was 15 and I was going to study arts, and then I was going to study as a career, I still didn’t know what, but I knew that to be like in the world of the arts, right? The truth is that I don’t know where I get this much certainty from, but I knew I was going to do it. I had the opportunity to study at the Miguel Cabrera Art Education Center, in the City of Oaxaca, and later at the University of Guadalajara, in the Bachelor of Audiovisual Arts. And well let’s say that along with these processes, eeh, I actually started young in the world of, as of expression, that is, since I was 12 years old I was doing photography under the guidance of Mariana Rosenberg, who rest in peace, or participating in experimental audiovisual training projects such as the “Mirada Biónica” project promoted by Isabel Rojas and Bruno Varela in the City of Oaxaca. Very alternative artistic training projects. That is, they have a very different vision of how to approach the creative act. And those two processes, in reality, I feel that they were the ones that most formed me of all, let’s say, the access that I have been able to achieve to artistic training. Mariana Rosenberg came at an early age in my life, and very clearly, uh, she gave me a camera and said, “Be free,” right? In other words, “be free, take whatever pictures you want.” And the exercise with Mariana was learning to see what I was seeing, which is something that I feel has accompanied me over the years and as time progresses I feel that I continue to reaffirm that exercise that Mariana gave me, right?, to learn to see what we were seeing. And it is an exercise that I recommend to everyone who is listening to us. Now things have changed a lot and we have access to a smartphone that can take photos and invite them to observe what they are photographing, what they are looking at, why they approach or move away from things or people. I think that kind of thing for me has been much more fundamental.
S: What is it that captivated you about the cinema? Why the cinema and why not…? You know? Yes you were making photographs. I know your profile is also that of a producer, manager, eeeh… But, what is it that prompts you to say, “I want to direct and cinema is my language of expression?”
L: It’s really interesting to understand why. It’s very crazy because I started in front of the camera. I started as an actress and then what I did was place the camera in front of me and I was behind. And it is like a kind of shield, that is, like in this adolescent process of beginning to understand what the world you live in is and understand everything that is happening to you. For me, the camera worked as a shield because it allowed me to protect myself, but at the same time, to be able to see the world. And for me, the cinema has been a space for exploration, a space for searching. I believe that the films that I am interested in making or that I am thinking of doing, it is not because I know, let’s say, what the result is, or where I want to go exactly; but because I am clear that there are things that generate a lot of curiosity, many questions. And for me, cinema is the tool that allows me to carry out those processes of investigation and reinterpretation of reality, right? And I think that this image that I have of myself glued to the television is like, and it is still the same now with the screen, the computer or the telephone; as of this, well yes, like seduction of the image and the sound, and that is always a trip. I mean, you’re always moving around and I like that a lot. When you see a movie that really moves you, it moves you from place to place, you are not the same person. There is something in you that has been transformed. I’m not saying that it changed your life as well as drastically, but you are not the same person because something about you moved, rearranged itself, changed places… and that interests me a lot.
S: What are the issues about which, uh, you are impacted or moved by and you are interested in talking about?
L: I think that without much thought, uh, in a very, uh, organic way, I started to work a lot on women’s issues. In other words, the issue of how we women live, our daily lives. That I think has been a very strong theme. Right now I am producing and editing the film La Revuelta, which is a journey through a feminist collective of the 70s and a review of these 50 years of feminism in Mexico. And I do feel very, very close, very identified with understanding how we build, this walk as women in the world, right? And now, this one, I was lucky that Gabriela Jauregui invited me to participate along with 12 other writers to publish texts in a book called Tsunami. This is volume 2, where I have participated, and it is also a, let’s say, a compendium of texts about being a woman in this country. So the issue of women, I think I’ve been very close to. Now I feel that just, like I want to close a cycle and start talking about other things, and those other things have to do with something that causes me deep curiosity, which is how people agree. Yes, it is very complex to agree because each human being is a world and I have grown up in a context where people agree. Let’s say, the body with the highest authority is the assembly, and the assembly is a member of the family, of all the families in the community and there are more than 200 people and it is, “How do we agree?” It’s something that I think is also super important to share with more people in other parts of the world who, let’s say, have moved away from the understanding that human beings can agree and we can do things together, right? And that interests me a lot, and I am very interested in understanding where the construction of desires comes from, let’s say. Not only in sexual terms, which also interests me a lot. And the film that I am preparing now, there is an inquiry, an exploration of eroticism. But I am interested in understanding, uh, how desires are born in each one of us. And what leads us to say to this construction of the human being who wants power and that leads us to the construction of another type of logic, or of organizations, or of commitments to the common good.
S: Yes, you just beat me. I was going to ask you about community cinema and… Hey, we interviewed a visual artist named Daniel Nivón last semester and he also works a lot with Tequio and the Assembly. Well then, but you already mentioned this to us…
L: What I would like to share with you is that when I returned to Oaxaca and began to develop audiovisual training processes in Guelatao and in other communities in the region, eeeh, for me it became very logical to try to resume these forms of community organization. What does this entire region have, and in reality, the vast majority of communities in Oaxaca, what have we called Communality? for the organization of film production. And 10 years after doing this as an intention, for me it is very important to understand it in a timeline where, well, how cinema does not cease to be, in the history of humanity, as a very young art and that generated a great industry, right? And at the same time, because movements that have wanted to position artistic expression per se, rather than economic superiority as priority, therefore, of the generation of money within the cinematographic work. And for me it has been very important to speak of community cinema as an enunciation of other ways of making cinema. In the sixties, filmmakers in Europe did, they positioned auteur cinema to make a big difference between the cinema that was made in Hollywood and the cinema that could be made from elsewhere, right? I believe that now, positioning community cinema as another way of making cinema is an exercise in enunciation, first of all, that cinema is not by an author, that is, cinema is by a collective of creatives, right? It does have a director, there is a producer, there are film photographers, right? Eeh, but that is a collective exercise. By making that statement, we are creating collectively. And although, let’s say, the market positions the name of the director, of the actors for a marketing issue, to understand deeply that the cinema is not the director, they are not the actors; It is the very complex exercise of being able to link and weave all the ideas and all the contributions of a very large team of creatives, right? So, well, for me it has been very important and I think that in that sense I have learned a lot about how things are done in my community, eeeh, especially at the level of production tools: that is, how projects are financed, no? The communities in Oaxaca, and I think they are very famous for that, have tremendous parties of days, of days, of days. That if you understand in detail everything that implies that the ceremony is when it has to be, that the food is when it has to be, eeeh, because they are very, very, very broad production processes. So, learn from them, how those resources are managed collectively, how these types of events are planned, eeeh, what is considered, what is not considered, eeeh; and above all to understand that, when one makes a movie, that it is like a party, a collective party, that it is a project that, to which many people are interested, willing, affectionate, it is a project that is going to come out and go ahead because there is a lot of intention involved, right? And it is only in this way that films really come out, because films are such complex processes that they need the enthusiasm and energy of a very large community and when films respond to, well, to tell urgent stories or tell stories that are necessary to an increasingly broad community, as they are projects that grow a lot, right? And I am very interested in understanding it like this, especially when we do training processes because I think that is the big difference, right? When you write a letter that is addressed to many people, many people can answer that letter and do a communication exercise as is. When you write a letter that is addressed to very few people, the answer is shorter. And understand it this way because there will be a diversity of those who are interested in how to speak only to a sector of the population, because that is the answer that you are going to have, right? And have that understanding so that there is no such cloud, right? Of, “Why doesn’t my movie work?”, Right? It’s because maybe you’re not talking to everyone.
S: Yes. I wanted to ask you something related to this topic, How…? Eeeh, speaking of Indigenous peoples who also have great diversity in Mexico and the official discourse is that Mexico is a multicultural, multi-diverse country. However, this multiculturalism is always attacked or discriminated against, affected or denied. How have you lived or experienced this type of situation? Not only expressively, that is, not only what inspires you creatively, but have you yourself experienced any kind of discrimination for the simple fact of being originally from Oaxaca?
L: Mmmm, it is, it is, it is very difficult to answer the question, because when you go on a trip that does the exercise of, well, naming violence… because what happens, and I think that in that sense women can understand it a lot. Well, right? Violence is there so daily that naming it is super difficult. And when you start to name it, well you also realize that you were not naming it because not naming it is an exercise like putting on a shield to say, “It is not true, it is not happening to me and therefore it does not hurt”, right? And do the exercise of naming it because it implies that it hurts. So I do think it is a very difficult question to answer, eh, and what, I mean, what I think is: “Híjole!”, Right? In other words, how difficult that after 25 years of working around all this, eeeh, we have to enunciate these processes of violence and discrimination that we are in. Because we can’t escape from them, uh, I would like to be able to say, “See the movies of so many women filmmakers; Zapotec, Eeeh, Ayüük, Ñuu Savi, or this one, in general, right?” And what you realize is that no… I mean, Ángeles Cruz; actress, director, Mixteca screenwriter that this week or the following week, will be premiering at the Miami Festival, its first fiction feature film, and it is the first fiction film filmed by an Indigenous woman, right? So it’s very complex because it should be different, right? I mean, in a country that has a much larger Indigenous population, at least a much higher percentage should be produced by Indigenous filmmakers, right? I mean, it should be normal, we shouldn’t be talking about this, right? What is sad is that it becomes special, that we are not talking about, that we do not focus on talking about the stories or the conflict, or what you are saying, but that we have to state that, in addition to that, it becomes special because historically no one like “you”, who comes from places like you, has been there, right? So it seems to me to be very, well, yes, I find it very difficult to answer. Especially because already in our environment, the cinema, it is not that someone is going to take off the shoe and throw it, I think that would already be too much. As we are already in another era. And so the discrimination processes are very subtle, very subtle; And they are… Yesterday I was talking with some friends, “Tell me what you are laughing at and I’ll tell you who you are,” right? In other words, like the giggle of “I don’t know,” that is, everything is very subtle and I would even say, “no, I could be crazy rather,” right? In other words, how to consider that this is not discrimination, they did not hit me. But if you do an exercise in recognizing how power relations are built, violence. Well, if you realize that you can’t escape it.
S: Yes, I totally agree with you. Uh, about, well, I want to ask a question that’s a bit of a two-way street. One is, you are involved in the cinema and you have a diversity of profiles, but if I ask you: How is your creative process as a director? It can probably be very different than, I don’t know, the editing process or any other process. But in general, how could you describe what your creative process is? Especially yes, directing and above all, well right now you tell us a bit about how things went with Tio Yim, which I know is the first documentary you directed, correct? But it is not the first work you directed…
L: Yes. Notice that it is very interesting that you ask me because yes, I literally feel that the brain, as well as that the light on this side is turned on, and when I produce the light on the other side is turned on, and when I am editing I am understanding to see where the light comes on because I hardly feel much more “in diapers” as an editor, right? But at the level of the creative process as a director, what I recognize, on the one hand, is that I have curiosities as well as very fixed ideas, right? In other words, when I made the documentary Me parezco tanto a ti, which is a short film; I knew that she wanted to know how the grandmothers had made her to live her life as women, because she had a very crazy idea there that she thought that grandmothers were against young women because we dressed differently, because we spoke differently, because… I don’t know, because we wanted to study, right? And well, that very honest and very clear curiosity on my part, led me to learn and recognize that the entire generation of women is who they are and have the desires they have because our mothers and grandmothers fought for us to be where we are. And for me that trip has been as very important as one of recognition and discovery. With Tío Yim, because I knew that I had a very strong doubt to understand why my father had not been as I thought he should be. And it is very clear and a very complex question that it took me 7 years like that journey to try to understand the answer. And I say, “try to understand the answer,” because I have been realizing that for me the exercise of direction is an exercise of learning to listen because the answers are there, right? The answers of all the grandmothers were there, but between the answer and my head, and my listening; Well, there is a distance and that distance has meant time for me to listen, and to listen again, and to listen again to what the interviews are telling me until the twentieth falls. And because learning to listen is very complex. You say, “Oh, yes, well, yes, I already heard,” right? But being able to delve into what people are saying to you and make the effort to listen, for me it has been very important because that is where the learning I am looking for is, that is, how to satisfy those doubts is there and is not going to being in my head, it’s going to be in what people tell me, right? And now that I’m making fiction, I’m preparing a feature film, because the process is very different because there are no interviews, but as for me the logic was, “Well, I want to tell this story that is based on, inspired by many women I know.” And my logic that does come, I think that from the documentary, I go and do interviews with these women I respect and admire a lot, to understand what their experience is like of assuming responsibilities as great as the defense of the territory, what makes them mobilize, place themselves there, raise their voices, that it seems “well, it is easy,” right? But it is not easy for any woman to raise her voice, that is, speaking is a complex exercise, expressing what you are saying is complex and when that speaking becomes a space of demand, of respect for the territory; it is much more complex, it is like another level. So, I believe that my creative process as a director is based on doubts, curiosities, things that I want to understand about the world, about humanity; and from there I set out on a path. That path is not clear, that is, I am not that director, “Ah, yes, I imagined the movie,” as did Hitchcock, who said that just like that, like that, all the shots and that’s it, that’s perfect. No? I’m not like that, nor am I ever going to pretend. I think the important thing for me is to know that I have doubts and to understand where those doubts come from, to understand how those doubts can be answered, to open the space, to learn to listen that it is not easy for me, that is, it is complex and to be able to venture into that process, on that journey that will take me to close a story in a film and, let’s say, I don’t care if that takes as long as it takes because if I believe that artistic processes are that, they are processes and that one is not going to be the same before than after. And then I am not going to run because my priority is not that the film is released. My priority is to live the process and I want to learn to write. I want to enjoy the writing process, enjoy living with other people, with whom I can develop the characters, enjoy the location search… In other words, I do believe faithfully that the creative act is an act full of a lot of magic and that this education, because at the end of the day it is an education, that you have to suffer art and that if you don’t sacrifice yourself, you won’t achieve it and like this super flagellant thing that comes as from the Catholic religion of, well, as from sacrifice, it is an education; it is a way of seeing the world that responds to certain ideas and logics. But from where I am, we have to learn to build other processes and there are, and I want to make, let’s say, all these films, eeeh, building processes that allow me to understand humanity more beyond the premiere of a movie or of how many people can reach to see it. I’m interested first in being somewhere else after finishing a movie and that that allows me to be a better human being. I do believe that art is a space that can lead you to be a better human being, right? And if that is what you are looking for, and if that is also what art has done to you, well, art has changed me, it has transformed me, it has made me think about other things. I believe that this can be done without violence and that this exercise of seeking to carry out these processes without violence, or learning to name the violence that can occur in creative processes is also for me, it is super important, right? More than the perfect result per se, right?
L: Yes. Luna, now yes: What does it mean to make art in a country like Mexico? And it’s a bit open question, isn’t it? Because I’m not really specifying anything but I don’t know, I think like economically, politically, eeeh, I don’t know.
L: Notice that I think I am going to answer your question with the previous question. In other words, from: Why do I produce or how do I produce? Because I think they are linked. Eh, I mean, when I got out of school, I wanted to direct. And you are realizing that the context, because it implies a very important element that is a producer/ a producer and understanding what they do. Understand. And then, the things that I have produced, eeeh, the projects that I have produced, there is a lot in there, as well as what they call cultural management, this one, because it has to do with generating enough energy and resources for what you want to happen, right? And I think that the films that I have produced, I have produced them because I think they have to be made, right? I mean, like in that very believing thing, with a very crazy faith, right? But now what I’m producing, this film called La Revuelta, which we hope to release at the end of this year, uh, I do realize that it was clear to me that this film had to be made more than 10 years ago, right? And one thing happened, the other happened, things are changing, life… And now that we are already in the process of starting to close the film, I say, “How important that this film be made,” right? “How important, that this film can be shared with other women in the world.” And then, I think, what is it like to make art in Mexico? I believe that an exercise that interests us, as well as being very aware, that there are things that need to be done, that are important, that one believes, and it may be wrong, and it may be that it is not important for 99% of the population, but one believes that it is important, and that faith; It allows you to have enough energy and enthusiasm to do whatever it takes to do those projects. And I mean “everything that is necessary,” not because it is worth doing everything, right? I mean the enthusiasm of being able to promote these projects and encourage others to also be included in the same boat. I mean, I do think of it as this idea of, “Hey, it’s a good party, hey, drop it,” right? And when it’s a good party, such as, for example, projects like the Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante, which have involved hundreds of professionals from Mexico and abroad; I think of it that way. In other words, it was a very good party or it is a very good party and that is why people get involved, because it is also a very important party, that is, it is not only very good but it is also a very important party. And I believe that artists in Mexico can assume that awareness, if what you are doing is important, you have to build that irresistible invitation to participate in the project. And when that irresistible invitation happens, people are there and between all of us we do things. And for me that is production: making irresistible invitations, having parties, making life, eeh, within what we think is important. And I believe that art in general cannot be displayed as its social impact or its political impact. In other words, I do believe that, “everything personal is political,” feminists would say, “All art is political.” As much as you do not want to talk about anything, nothing, nothing, nothing and want to do something, like hyper contemplative, you are taking a political position. And then not me, I have never been interested in politics. No, no, no, it has never been my journey. But I do believe that what I do builds new narratives. Not because of originals, not because of new ones, but because they come from this person who is a funnel of a very specific context; nothing more than that right? And that these narratives generate a conversation in the audience, and that conversation will lead to other conversations, other constructions, other narratives and thus we are changing the world. When the image is new, the world is new. And I think that’s the exercise, we are all the time rebuilding this world because we are reimagining it every day. And it is very clear now with social networks, everyone is creating characters there, and actions, and activities, right? And we are there building a very crazy alternate reality as well.
S: Yes, totally. Where is that going to take us? I don’t have much of an idea… Luna, what would be something, like a kind of advice, that you learned over the years and that you would like to share with the young profiles who are interested in cinema or any other artistic discipline? Something that you would have liked to know from the beginning but, well, you learned it over the years.
L: Something that I would like to know, would I have liked to know now?
S: Yes, as a tip, how…
L: Yes, well I think it has to do with learning to listen to the body, hahaha. It is very crazy, eeeh, but let’s say that the universe is full of messages and directions, and they tell you, “you have to do this, and you should be there… and blah, blah, blah.” And then there is a universe of directions between what your parents, your friends, your partner tell you, right? So it is very easy to get lost, it is very easy to say, “Oh well yes, I listen to my best friend because she is very chingona,” right? And it turns out that no, that what your body, in the sense of what your person deeply desires, is beating in another way, in another direction and accepting what someone tells you, it would be a denial of what you really want. And I say it because, because advertising all the time is telling us how to make life. So, I think it is very important to listen to the body, to really listen to what makes us happy or what makes us whole. Or what makes us breathe, now as with everything about COVID, and that all the time there is an issue like where can you or cannot breathe? I think it is very important to recognize where we feel good, such as in what act, let’s say, in what activities and to recognize that we can breathe; that if we feel that our breathing is not choking, it is not agitated, we are in the right place, right? And we are only going to be able to do that by exercising great honesty with who we really are, that is, with ourselves. And if we are there as in an exercise of honesty, which is not easy, eeeh; we can perhaps be much more complete. And if that means leaving your boyfriend, if that means changing your career, or if that means stopping studying and dedicating yourself to something else, or if that means starting to study. Whatever it is, but what your body and your person are really asking of you, and not what the universe of people or advertising is telling you, “you should have a new iPhone,” right?
S: Yes, no, totally. And I see it… yes, this from social networks or the outside world is a very strong influence… Now to close this section and move on to a section of shorter questions, eeeh: How has the pandemic affected your practice? It has been easy to make movies in the last year that we have spent with the pandemic; more or less, everything has adapted? Not? I know that many activities, there is no way to completely stop them, although we have lived this blockage or this activity stop for a year but we cannot live like this because in the end productivity dies, so how, how have you managed, eeeh, to adapt to these circumstances?
L: Huuy, not good! I think that it is the obligatory question and I don’t know, that is, for me it was very complex, as, I suppose, for the rest of the world. Perhaps in that sense, perhaps much more fortunate. Eeeh, I think that during the last 10 years I have dedicated myself to bringing people together within training processes. I told you, the party, right? I have consciously dedicated myself to bringing people together and the pandemic was stop! Stop! I mean, we had a festival on the doorstep, well… a lot of things. And then stopping short before, 3 months after filming my movie, that is, it was a very bashful thing but I think that on balance, almost one year after the pandemic; I am very grateful to have lived that process, to have also lived it as a very, as a companion. It could be said, this, to say that I definitely believe that I am not the same person before the pandemic, and that stopping me has given me the possibility of starting to write, that is, like this that came out with the Tsunami book, It is the result of the pandemic, right? I had the space, time to be able to sit down, to type and discover that it is something that I like a lot and that it does me very good emotionally, it does me very good to do that exercise of going from the head to the letters, well, right? And then I feel very, very lucky. Everything, everything changed, that is, all the projects that I had because I believe that there is no project that did not involve the gathering of people, this, then yes, everything was modified. It has cost me a lot to resume the projects because in my head the important thing was to eat together, and now no. Not being able to do it, it has been a challenge, it has opened up to me other possibilities that I would never have imagined. And I think you have to take it a bit like that, right? How do you say? Aaaah, “If life gives you lemons, learn to make lemonade,” and that’s it, right? And be grateful that I have health. Right now the truth is that I am very grateful to be able to be healthy and to be able to edit a film how I really like. The truth is very grateful and hoping that, well, yes that all the people who may be listening to us may, let us say, take advantage of these times to rediscover themselves, with themselves; and that it can be a space, well, not easy because I think that for many people it has involved a lot of pain, but that this allows us to survive in the end, right? Survive as humanity.
S: Yes, well, in a sense, yes, it is such a strange period for everyone, everyone, everyone in the world, it is unimaginable, right? For people who have lost loved ones. Very good Luna, I am going to ask you a series of more specific questions. So if you’re ready let’s go to that part, eeeh, any favorite music album, songwriter, or favorite song?
L: Well, I would like to share with you the album Manik, by the composer Ayüük Eduardo Díaz Méndez, eeeh, especially the piece Aquí viví that in fact I was fortunate to be able to reinterpret it on video and that we also have there on my YouTube channel. Also invite them to listen to the band Son Imaginaire, which is an Oaxacan band. I especially like the piece Laisse moi-faire a lot, I think, I don’t know if I’m saying it right, but it’s in French. Those two, this one, well, Eduardo’s Manik album and this piece by the band Son Imaginaire, because if they are like music that I highly recommend listening to, exploring; I think they are very disciplined and super artists, this one, how do you say it? They are producing an unimaginable quantity, so they will have a lot to discover there with them.
S: Wow, this must be difficult! A favorite movie.
L: Oh yeah, it’s very, it’s very difficult. Notice that just thinking about dance and a review, let’s say the enjoyment of dance, from another place; I would propose to them to see a film called Ñuu Kanda by the Mixtec Director Nicolás Rojas, which he has or well, it is a documentary that explores, let’s say, the relationship between dance and belonging to a community. And I think she has very emotional moments of understanding what dancing is, that is, what dancing is and how that dance is an epic thing when it is done for 3 days without stopping, entering a kind of, well yes , like ecstasy, right ? And that many people travel many kilometers to be able to dance those days there in La Mixteca. So, Ñuu Kanda by Nicolás Rojas. And I would also tell them to be very aware of a new film, this is not yet released, it is in post-production, which is called Mamá by a Tzotzil filmmaker named Chon. And then Mamá, I think you are going to like it very much. It’s a very intimate approach, a very intimate conversation between mother and son that is super, super moving. So those two movies. I would also tell you not to miss out on the possibility of seeing eeeh, Nudo Mixteco by Ángeles Cruz that is being released, it would also be a great invitation.
S: Any favorite reading?
L: Well, I would like to recommend the book Ää: manifestos of linguistic diversity by Yásnaya Elena Aguilar, published last year by the Almadia publishing house. And I think it is a great reference. Yásnaya is one of the most fresh and outstanding thinkers, I think, that we have as a generation and I think this is her first book, a book, let’s put it that way. I think it is a text that is going to become a mandatory text for everyone.
S: Very good advice that someone has given you, and very bad advice that someone has given you?
L: Well, I think that the best advice, this one, could rescue what Mariana Rosenberg told me: to recognize, to learn to see what we are seeing, right? How to understand our gaze, eeeh, for everyone, everyone, those who want to venture into the audiovisual world, I think how it is being seen is super important. And very bad advice is every time they tell me, “you can’t.” I think it’s the worst thing anyone can say to you, but now it becomes like a door to possibility, doesn’t it? In other words, every time someone tells you, “you can’t”, then open the possibility that this is possible. It will take a learning curve, surely long or intense, but you have to learn to do the things you like.
S: Yes, no, totally. Eeeh, any artwork that has influenced or moved you? You know? Emotionally or reflexively, uh, I don’t know, either?
L: Hmm, I think there are many. In fact, in the piece Aquí viví by Eduardo Díaz, it is a piece that has moved me a lot. It is performed by the Philharmonic Band of the Musical Training Center -the CECAM-, which are great, great musicians. I mean, maybe you can put it in the background later, but I think it’s a, a great, it’s a great piece, very, very deep. And when I started talking to him about how his process had been, well, in the end it is a piece that is a journey from mourning to hope. And I think that at the time I heard it, for me it was very important, right? Very very important to be able to understand that trip. In other words, the duel is complex, it is hard, it is a hole, right? But after the duel; In other words, if you go through the duel and go deeper into the duel, you leave there and there is a space of light, and of, yes, of hope. And I think that this type, let’s say, like creations, makes me re-understand the world a bit, and also like the trip, the emotional trip, right?
S: Very beautiful, very good. I don’t want to take much more time from you, so let’s go with the last one. If at some point they told you that you can no longer do anything related to cinema or art, what would happen to you?
L: Well, for me, as the creative act is an everyday act, that is, the difference, let’s say for me, is whether the validation mechanisms are on your side for whatever reason, but whether or not they are by your side, no? No, it’s hard for me to think, “What would I do if… Now, for example, with the pandemic, right? In other words, if we are no longer going to be able to make films, well, I start writing, right? Because I think the important thing is to translate that need for questions, doubts, concerns; to the construction of a story, or to the construction of an image that evokes other people. Eeeh, and what I’ve done the most, in many ways, in this pandemic, is cooking. Gastronomy for me is a great journey. In other words, I am very happy cooking, it makes me rest my head very so much, but I also believe that it is that possibility of sharing with others something that pleases you very deeply. And sharing with others I love it. And I love how that moment where suddenly there is silence because the food is so good, that is, because you are enjoying it so much, that later the mood of the whole table is transformed, right? In other words, of all the diners, it begins to be another and although you have come all worried and saturated with whatever it is, after eating, “Ahh, well, a little coffee, right?” And we can be in another space, and that kind of thing interests me. I think that if I could not do any of these things, I would like to learn to cultivate, to sow. I think it is something that is not that I have not done it, but neither, that is, I am definitely not a person who has all the knowledge to do it, and well, I would like to understand how to plant the seedlings; They are also little plants that modify you, they also change you, they make you be somewhere else too, right? If you drink I don’t know what tea, it can lower your anxiety, it does change you, it transforms you. And how to understand the healing power of all plants; I think it is something that, now also with, well with this serious global health crisis, because it is something that I do not know, maybe I also have it very present for that, right?
S: Yes, totally. It has shown us, well, many life circumstances but now more, that it is much more everyday to feel very vulnerable, right? Anyway, uh, Luna, thank you very much! What a pleasure to have talked to you! Let’s see if in the future we can at least have a coffee and get to know each other.
L: Yes, with pleasure.
S: We wish you, well I know that there are many things that stayed there in the questions or in the head; But we wish you the best in your projects, that it continues to be a period of great productivity and a lot of creativity, and we will be following you, we will share your social networks and, well, thank you very much for making a little space in your agenda.
L: No, thank you very much also for opening the spaces for conversations, and have a very good weekend.
S: Okay, good morning.
REFERENCES:
- Guelatao de Juárez: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pablo_Guelatao
- Zapoteca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapotec_peoples#:~:text=The%20Zapotecs%20
- Oaxaca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oaxaca
- Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante: https://campamentoaudiovisual.org/
- JEQO: https://www.facebook.com/jeqo.cine/
- Cine Too Lab: https://lab.cinetoo.org/
- Brujazul: http://www.brujazul.com/
- Los Años Azules: https://www.filmelier.com/mx/film/7057/los-anos-azules
- Los Arieles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariel_Award
- Me parezco tanto a ti: https://vimeo.com/66254927
- Tío Yim: https://tioyim.com/
- BBC_REEL: https://www.bbc.com/reel/playlist/the-longshots-film-festival?vpid=p08dtg72
- 10 mejores películas del 2020: https://www.timeoutmexico.mx/ciudad-de-mexico/cine/las-mejores-peliculas-mexicanas-de-2020
- TimeOutMX: https://www.timeoutmexico.mx/ciudad-de-mexico
- Tsunami 2: https://sextopiso.mx/esp/item/547/tsunami-2
- Gabriela Jauregui: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriela_Jauregui
- Sexto Piso: https://sextopiso.mx/
- Alebrije: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alebrije
- Female violence in Mexico: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violence_against_women_in_Mexico#:~:text=or%20killed%20women.-,2019%20to%202021,seven%20per%20day%20in%202017.
- Sierra Norte: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Norte_de_Oaxaca
- Telenovelas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telenovela
- Universidad de Guadalajara: https://www.udg.mx/
- Mariana Rosenberg: https://diariojudio.com/comunidad-judia-mexico/a-mariana-rosenberg-1966-2016/170759/
- Daniel Nivón: https://proartesmexico.com.mx/aquialla-daniel-godinez-english-transcription/
- Tequio: https://www.reddit.com/r/socialism/comments/7f3g0e/what_is_tequio_traditional_community_labor_in/
- Zapoptec: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapotec_peoples#:~:text=The%20Zapotecs%20(Zoogocho%20Zapotec%3A%20Didxa%C5%BEo%C5%8B,also%20exist%20in%20neighboring%20states.
- Ayüük: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixe_languages
- Ñuu Savi: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtec
- Mixteca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtec
- Ángeles Cruz: https://iffr.com/en/persons/%C3%A1ngeles-cruz
- Festival de Miami: https://miamifilmfestival.com/
- Hitchcock: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Hitchcock
- Manik: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_ktMsmk2efvpAPyhiae4Vs-IGVwheystGE
- Aquí viví: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTWCYS-xiYc
- Luna Marán/ canal de youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Compartencia/videos
- Le Band-Son Imaginaire: https://labandeson.bandcamp.com/
- Laisse moi-faire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiygmE4rw34
- Ñuu Kanda: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iasV-u_hryM
- Nicolás Rojas: https://imaginenative.org/tuyuku
- La Mixteca: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Mixteca
- Tzotzil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzotzil
- Nudo Mixteco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1Aq8v51L0c
- Ää: manifiestos de la diversidad lingüística: http://tienda.editorialalmadia.com/libro/aa-manifiestos-sobre-la-diversidad-linguistica_1637
- Yásnaya Elena Aguilar: https://thebaffler.com/authors/yasnaya-elena-aguilar-gil
- Almadía: http://tienda.editorialalmadia.com/
- Banda Filarmónica del Centro de Capacitación Musical: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQLocpUU5ey-RDfMcQj5E1g
- CECAM: http://www.cecam.org.mx/