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Interview Flying north from Mexico An interview with Duck Season writer-director Fernando Eimbcke By John Esther February 27, 2006 San Diego--Films about adolescence rarely come as precociously acute as Fernando Eimbcke’s Duck Season (Temporada De Patos), which won an unprecedented 11 Ariel Awards (Mexico’s Oscar). The story begins when, one Sunday, best friends Flama (Daniel Miranda) and Moko (Diego Cataño) have the apartment to themselves. They have their cola, chips, videogames and cash for a pizza order—this is a time for buds to hang out. But the bonding session is quickly disrupted. First, Flama’s neighbor Rita (Danny Perea) shows up and wants to use the kitchen. Next, the power goes out. That’s followed by the boys getting into an argument with the pizza delivery guy, Ulises (Enrique Areola), who will not leave until he is paid.
Vyuz contributing writer John Esther spoke to Eimbcke about his first feature film, cages, Mexico cinema and Latino film festivals. Why did you want to tell this particular story? I wanted to look inside my teenager years. How autobiographical is the story? As a writer you look at things in your life that count. You must also have a lot of creativity because if you do not, you wind up putting yourself in the frame and that’s very dangerous and boring. Which of the characters do you identify with the most? With Ulises because of the way he’s trying to deal with the frustration of doing work he doesn’t want to do. What were the reasons for shooting the film in black and white? Because the script asked for it. When I was writing the script I never thought of doing it in black and white. Then I was seeing a lot of classical films by [Yasujiro] Ozu and [Federico] Fellini and I thought it might be a good idea. Then we realized it would help because the story was so minimal. So it did not have to do with how we tend or pretend to see the past or memory in black and white? No. But that’s good. We said that it’s a very nostalgic film. People 30-35 years old, they liked the film more than teenagers. They had a nostalgic feeling. Maybe the black and white helped do that? What were the reasons behind the rhyme of the film? How time passes by in the film, to really feel the things happening in the frame between the characters. One of the running leitmotifs in the film is being caged in. Would you talk about that for a moment? Moko is caged on his doubts. He wants to know but he doesn’t have the courage to know. The fight of his parents cages Flama. Ulises is caged by his job and what he really wants to do. Rita is caged by her loneliness. They are dealing with that. They want to be free. They don’t know they want to be free but they realize it during the film. What do think about the MPAA giving it an R rating? Do you think it was excessive? Yes because there is nothing there that will affect children negatively. Your first feature was so successful. Are you worried about getting the sophomore blues? I had a hard time but now I’m working. I don’t have too much time to worry about it. Maybe the second film will be bad. For a director it’s about a lot of films, not just the first or second. This film is playing at the upcoming San Diego Latino Film Festival. How do you feel about film festivals focusing on Latino cinema? I think that it’s important for the Latino community to have a festival of their own, to feel they have films of their own. Do you think it might marginalize Latino cinema by categorizing something into “Latino” cinema? I always prefer the international film festivals [he laughs]. You can see films from all over the world…A problem with a Latino film festival is that they put in a not-so-good film in the festival just because it’s Latino. I have been to a lot of Latino film festivals and I have seen terrible films. What do you think of the city of San Diego? I was there for eight hours so I didn’t catch the feeling of the city. What do you think about America’s dominance of world cinema, in particular, the unfair trade between Mexico and the United States? It’s terrible because Mexico’s films don’t have the chance to be in the theaters and Mexicans prefer American films. [Hollywood] has a huge marketing apparatus so it’s very difficult to compete. Is that a frustration a lot of Mexican filmmakers feel, that their own country is more interested in American cinema than their own? Yes, Mexicans just want to see Hollywood films with big stars. If there is a film by Paul Thomas Anderson, people don’t care too much, even if the film is good. Another theme in Duck Season is that art gets people to talk and have conversations. How do you feel about talking about your own film? I prefer the film speaks for itself. It’s very difficult to talk about my film. I begin to analyze the film too much. Duck Season is done. I want to finish with it. I would love to talk about my new film? Okay, tell us about your new film? [Laughing]. Sorry, not with the press. -------------------- John Esther is a freelance writer. This is his first contribution to Vyuz.com. Suggested Vyuz reading... What it's like to be straight in Hillcrest | By Leopard J. Ferry San Diego Mayor talks corruption and the Strong Mayor form of government | By Larry Knowles Steve York, UCSD pornographer, chooses law over porn | By Larry Knowles The bare facts about Brazilian waxing | By Romina Cleary A look inside Imperial Beach border patrol | By Larry Knowles A serial networker walks among us | By April Labine-Katko |
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