With Guatemala as this year’s guest country of honor at the 36th Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG), the festival will be screening more than a dozen films from this tiny Central American country, including one of its recent standouts, Justin Lerner’s “Cadejo Blanco.”Oct. 3, is the world premiere of the female-driven crime drama. It competes in the Ibero-American Features section.
Although born in Boston, Lerner’s ties with Guatemala run deep, where he even proposed to his French-American wife at the edge of a volcano. He was also instrumental in the establishment of a film school in Guatemala, where he was the first film professor. While he was teaching there, one of his students introduced him the charming Caribbean town of Puerto Barrios. “Cadejo Blanco”It is primarily a matter of course.
He spent two years visiting the town, interviewing its youth, many of whom were linked to gangs. Finally, he cast some of their stories in the film he was writing. “They were involved in the script throughout the process, editing and correcting to make sure it was authentic,” said Lerner.
Although it is fictional, “Cadejo Blanco”Lerner’s hidden side shows the sinister underbelly in what Lerner calls one of the most beautiful areas in Guatemala. The white ‘cadejo’The title refers to a mythical four-legged creature that is believed to be a cross between a dog and a wolf, which protects people from harm.
Guatemalan-born Karen Martínez, who played in “La Jaula de Oro” meriting a 2013 Cannes Un Certain Regard ensemble prize winner for her performance, plays Sarita, who goes in search of her missing sister to Puerto Barrios where her sister’s boyfriend, a gang member, lives. She risks her life to infiltrate the gang and eventually learns the truth behind her sister’s disappearance.
Many of the cast are former gang members, who have a lot to offer as they display a youthful innocence and grit while committing violent crime in order for them to survive their turf battles.
“’Cadejo Blanco’ is more about the transformation of a young woman,” says Lerner as Sarita seeks closure – or perhaps revenge – for her sister.
The drama is Lerner’s third film but is the first that he filmed in Spanish outside of the U.S. “The crews in Guatemala are the best I’ve ever worked with, in terms of talent, efficiency, and ability,”He asserted and added: “They work harder, are serious but also know how to have fun; there was a big sense of family, it didn’t feel like work.”Roman Kasseroller, an Argentine DP, is his only companion (“Cocote,” “A Mother”), the rest of his department heads and crew were from Guatemala, many of whom have trained in the multiple TV commercials, documentaries and shorts that have filmed there.
“In any shoot, there will invariably be a Central American crew member,”Joaquin Ruano is the head of the Guatemalan Commission on Film Festivals, who cited Nicaraguan set “Daughter of Rage,” which swept San Sebastian’s Latam WIP awards. “It had a sizeable Guatemalan crew of at least eight,”He points out.
“The bulk of the film’s financing is mostly Guatemalan, which is quite unusual,”Says “Cadejo Blanco”Producer Mauricio Escobar, La Danta Films, agreed with Lerner on the quality and professionalism of the crews in Guatemala. “Justin is a great leader and knows how to motivate people,”He concluded.
Cadejo Blanco
Courtesy: 30West
Escobar has worked on Jayro Bustamante’s “La Llorona,” a leading multiple nominee at this year’s Premios Platino in Madrid and Guatemala’s submission to the 93rd Academy Awards. It will also screen in Guadalajara, as part of the retrospective.
Filmmaker Cesar Diaz, winner of Cannes’ 2019 Critics’ Week Grand Prize and Camera d’Or for his drama(*) (“Our Mothers”), is a partner in La Danta Films and is an editor and executive producer of “Nuestras Madres”Guatemalan filmmakers are not eligible for state funding, despite the global recognition and acclaim that films directed by Diaz and Bustamante have received. There is currently no film law. “Cadejo Blanco.”
Ruano, who admitted that the invitation from Guadalajara was the inspiration for the commission he leads, said so.“These films reveal the problems of the country so the state is not interested in backing them,”When Guatemala’s Minister of Culture did not even reply to Guadalajara’s invitation, they saw the need to form this commission, made up of the Guatemalan Association of Audiovisual and Cinematography, the new Guatemalan Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences and La Casa de Producción, its main function being to coordinate the participation of Guatemala as FICG’s guest country of honor, said Ruano.
Ruano stated that Guatemala, despite the absence of state support, is producing a new generation in filmmaking, with an average of eight films per year.
citing Guatemalan filmmakers Anais Taracena (“The past five, six years have especially seen the emergence of a new generation of women filmmakers from Central America,”), Ana Isabel Bustamante (“El Silencio del Topo”), Camila Urrutia (“La Asfixia”), Izabel Acevedo (“Polvora en el Corazon”) as well as “El Buen Cristiano”Pamela Guinea is an executive producer, among other things.“Cadejo Blanco”The Guatemala-U.S.-Mexico co-production, officially presented at TIFF Industry Selects in September, is repped in the U.S. by Trevor Groth’s 30West and in the rest of the world by WaZabi Films.
It is produced by Imperative Entertainment, La Danta Films, and The Orange Company together with Cine Caribe.
FICG36 runs from October 1-9.