La Mirada’s sixth year sees the festival move from April to November for the first time, with Cinema Nova now joining ACMI as a screening partner. Garcia sees the new partnership with Cinema Nova as heralding a stage of expansion for the festival, something that has become more and more likely with each year’s success.
“Since the inception of the festival, we’ve had so many offers – to travel interstate, to celebrate the festival in different cities. And that is something we’re considering and probably will be doing from next year,” she reveals. “But we have always been very cautious…we wanted to make sure that the festival was just perfect, and that’s why we’ve always concentrated on Melbourne. And I think that the audience here have appreciated that every single detail of the festival is carefully thought out and that we put a lot of love into everything we do.”
The extra screening site provides a newfound flexibility to La Mirada’s programming, and also gives Garcia the chance to address the kind of criticism you only get when you’re doing your job a little too well.
“I remember one member of our audience being really angry, sending these messages, saying, ‘This is so stupid! You bring these amazing films and then you only screen them once?’” she laughs. “We’ve gone from having 30 sessions at the beginning of the festival to having more like 75 sessions this year. Most of the films play two or three times, apart from the Opening Night and Closing Night films, and a couple of other films, which only screen once.”
One of La Mirada’s most notable ongoing characteristics is its guest curators, who alongside founding patron Pedro Almodóvar, make screening selections that enrich the program and draw attention to its other highlights. This year Almodóvar is joined by Gael García Bernal, Wes Anderson and Hives frontman Pelle Almqvist, resulting in the kind of hip cultural confluence that makes you blink when you read the names together. According to Garcia, getting such people involved is easier than you might think, but also, for her, a very personal process.
“It sounds a bit selfish, but I’ve chosen my favourite directors and artists. If you think about the curators we’ve had in the past – Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Stephen Daldry…at the beginning it was just me daring to ask people and being lucky that they liked the idea. And now I think with the list of guest curators we’ve had, and the reputation the festival has, it’s easier. Because they feel that they’re in good hands.”
In line with another La Mirada tradition, both the Wes Anderson and Pelle Almqvist selections are secret screenings, with the films to remain undisclosed until their sessions. Referring to Almqvist’s selection (the Swedish garage rocker a notable cinema buff), Garcia identifies the appeal to both the curators and the audience.
“It’s a fun idea that they would choose a film, that the audience is going to trust them, have that leap of faith and just go and see what the film is without knowing anything about it. [For example] Pelle was very enthusiastic about it and has been very meticulous in the process, watching many films, just to discover new things and bring to the audience something that would not disappoint them.
“It was my idea for making the festival not only for cinephiles,” she elaborates. “People who love rock ‘n’ roll and The Hives can love foreign films too.”
Other highlights include a Spanish cuisine and film feast at La Mirada Lounge before a screening of the “gastronomic musical” Mugaritz BSO, a Mexican fiesta at Cinema Nova after a screening of Gael García Bernal’s curated selection – the action thriller Miss Bala – and a very special event featuring one of the festival’s international guests, John McInerny, star of the certain crowd-pleaser The Last Elvis (who is, as Garcia notes, “the best Elvis impersonator in Latin America.”)
“He is going to be performing at the Closing Night with a backing band made up of members of You Am I and The Bowers [Tim Rogers, Davey Lane and Phil Gionfriddo]. We bring guests for question and answer sessions, but also do other fun things with them as well. It’s fantastic to have such amazing musicians performing Elvis’s Vegas Era songs with John.”
La Mirada also features Pablo Trapero’s Argentinian drama White Elephant, Spanish horror-comedy Game Of Werewolves, and a slice of Mexican punk rock politics in Machete Language. Rocio herself recommends The Wild Kids (“one of the best Spanish films of the last decade”), The Clay Diaries (“a simply mind-blowing documentary”) and the cleverly executed Opening Night film Extraterrestrial, by director Nacho Vigalondo – a tiny-budgeted rom-com set against the backdrop of an alien invasion.
“It’s a really incredible film from a director who’s so imaginative, and it’s so funny and so original,” enthuses Garcia, incidentally pinpointing one of La Mirada’s strengths – its support of unique filmic perspectives. “He made that whole film in his apartment, you know? There are people who complain all the time about how expensive it is to make a film because there is no money, and then there is this guy who for peanuts makes a film that is super affecting and looks great. It’s so ambitious!”
BY CHRIS HARMS
