Mexico launches a digital dictionary of directors

MEXICO CITY (AP) — After a quarter century of development, the Mexican Film Directors’ Dictionary launches its digital format with information on more than 850 directors, 60,000 images, interviews, essays and documents related to Mexican cinematography.

“This dictionary started 25 years ago,” said the dictionary’s director, Perla Ciuk, in a recent video call interview regarding the launch of its online version. “When I had to watch a Mexican movie again and wanted to enrich the information…there was absolutely nothing to hand.”

Ciuk, a cinephile since she saw “Peter Pan” at the age of four, studied communication with a major in cinema and later another major in film analysis and criticism. She has collaborated with various Mexican and international media and also participated as executive producer of the film “The first and brief life of Sabina Rivas” by Luis Mandoki.

In addition to doing extensive desk research to gather data, Ciuk’s approach has always been to contact living directors directly to add them to the dictionary. “There is no such thing as direct information from the source,” he said.

The dictionary is the result of teamwork between students, experts, publishers and moviegoers. The team currently has about twenty members, five of whom work full time.

Contains information on directors who have presented a film commercially in Mexico since the end of the 19th century. For now, it only includes fiction directors, but soon they will start with documentary directors.

On the site, there are photographs, posters, written and audio interviews, links to articles and external interviews or articles. It has a version in Spanish and English.

“I think through cinema, life, a nation, shines through,” Ciuk said.

The specialist pointed out that in the last 15 years there has been a proliferation of directors thanks to digital filming formats and the tax incentives granted by the Mexican government.

“And also thank you to the new generations who don’t expect support and say, ‘I’m going to make my movie with a cellphone,'” Ciuk said. “It has been a totally, brutal, technological and exposure change, because there are already very few Mexican films that are coming to the cinema… Now they are all coming directly to the platforms (streaming) and they have the possibility millions of people around the world see them,” he said.

Thanks also to technology, the dictionary has detected many errors included in early 20th century publications and reproduced in other media. For example, the date of birth of Emilio “El Indio” Fernández: the dictionary team didn’t stop until they found his birth certificate, which appears on his page (March 29, 1904 ).

The dictionary is a non-profit organization. They receive support from the Cineteca Nacional de México and are also open to donations. It’s a work in progress: “Tempestad” and “Noche de fuego” director Tatiana Huezo was not included when the dictionary was released on February 16. Ciuk explained that Huezo was about to fill out his form. The filmmaker was already in the collection of information for the week of February 20.

“I think there’s a great mosaic of diversity in Mexican cinema and that’s what this dictionary is for, because Mexican cinema isn’t made by three people, it’s not made by five , neither 10 nor 20; there are hundreds of them and here it is, it’s a window to see all these directors,” Ciuk said.

___

An Internet:

https://diccionariodedirectoresdelcinemexicano.com