Saturday, October 17 at 7:30pm: Join Cine Latino in a LIVE ZOOM conversation that includes Identifying Features Director, Writer, Producer Fernanda Valadez, Producer Yossy Zagha, and Writer, Editor and Producer Astrid Rondero, moderated by Cine Latino Artistic Director Hebe Tabachnik.
Watch the recorded Q&A on Facebook
Panelists
Fernanda Valadez - Director, Writer, Producer
Fernanda Valadez. Director and producer, Guanajuato, Mexico, 1981. Graduate of Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC). Her first short film De este mundo, received the best short film award at the Guanajuato Film Festival. It was considered the best Mexican short of the year by the Mexican Chamber of Film Industry. The script of her first feature Identifying Features was written with the grant Young Artists of the Mexican Fund for the Arts (FONCA). The project later received funds from FOPROCINE (Mexican Fund for the Production of Quality Cinema) and recently post production funds from EFICINE. The film received the work in progress award of the San Sebastián Film Festival.
Yossy Zagha - Producer
Zagha’s professional career began in the publicity field, working as copywriter for the Hispanic market in the United States. In 2005, Yossy returned to Mexico City to found Avanti Pictures along with his brother Jack. At Avanti, he serves as screenwriter and producer. Yossy has produced various short films, high-profile publicity campaigns and feature films including: Almacenados / Warehosued (2015), En el último trago / One for the road (2013), Adios mundo cruel / Goodbye cruel world (2010) and El Vigilante / Nightwatch (2016).
Astrid Rondero - Writer, Producer, Editor
Astrid Rondero has received grants and support from different programs and institutions like the Sundance Film Institute, Tribeca Film Institute, Berlinale Talents (Editing Studio 2010, Script Station 2014), Women in Film, Mexican Film Institute, among others. Her first feature, THE DARKEST DAYS OF US, obtained seven international awards as best feature and was nominated by the Mexican Academy of Cinematic Arts as Best First Feature and Best Actress (Ariel 2019). Astrid is co-writer and producer of IDENTIFYING FEATURES. Astrid is currently developing her second feature as a director, SUJO. The script was written with a grant from the Mexican Fund for the Arts (FONCA) and was selected for the Morelia-Sundance Screenwriters Lab 2019. The project was presented at the Sundance Talent Forum 2020. It will be a coproduction with Spain.
Hebe Tabachnik - MODERATOR, Cine Latino Artistic DirectorAbout Identifying Features
WATCH MOVIE
The award winning Identifying Features follows Magdalena whose son Jesús left Guanajuato with a friend to cross the border into the United States, and then vanished. Thus, she begins a perilous trek through Mexico, into the worst areas plagued by violence and despair.