The two day event “Foundations of Mexican Independent Cinema" is curated by film scholar Valerie Pires and features screenings and discussions with scholars and filmmakers focused on the convictions, creative world, and legacy of Grupo Nuevo Cine, a 1960s collective of Spanish exiles, Mexican, and Latin American filmmakers, artists, and intellectuals based in Mexico City. Influenced by Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel and Mexican poet Octavio Paz, the collective included Jomi García Ascot, María Luisa Elío, Emilio García Riera, Gabriel García Márquez, José de la Colina, Carlos Fuentes, Leonora Carrington, Alberto Isaac, Benito Alazraki, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Paul Leduc, Arturo Ripstein, and Felipe Cazals, among others.
The event screenings include the landmark experimental film On the Empty Balcony (En el balcón vacío, Jomi García Ascot, 1961), which won awards at the Locarno Film Festival and Sestri Levanti Film Festival in 1962, and Back Home So Late (2025) by Spanish filmmaker Celia Viada Caso, winner of the Spanish First Prize in L’Alternativa Official at the 32 Festival de Cinema Independent de Barcelona.
Discussions following these films will include the following participants: Professor Breixo Viejo, Valerie Pires (curator and film scholar), Professor Richard Peña, Diego García Elío (founder and editor, El Equilibrista), Rodrigo García (filmmaker), Luis Juárez (film restorer), José Manuel Mouriño (essayist and filmmaker), Celia Viada Caso (filmmaker), and Issa García Ascot (filmmaker).
Additional screenings include the experimental short films The Blue Lobster (Luis Vicens, Álvaro Cepeda Samudio, Enrique Grau Araújo, Gabriel García Márquez, 1954); Remedios Varo: 1913-1963 (Jomi García Ascot, 1967), and A Way of Saying (Issa García Ascot, 2011).
The restored version of On the Empty Balcony is presented courtesy of Elias Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE). The Blue Lobster is presented courtesy of Fundación Patrimonio Fílmico Colombiano.
Program
Day 1 | Wednesday, April 29, 2026
Lenfest Center for the Arts
Day 2 | Friday, May 1, 2026
Instituto Cervantes New York (211-215 E 49th St, New York, NY 10017)
