Montemorelos University students take second place in national short film competition

Production team from Montemorelos University at the 9th national university Hazlo en Cortometraje awards ceremony at the Cinépolis Arcos Bosques facilities in Mexico City, Jan. 26, 2017. From left to right: Cristel Romero, Samuel Ramírez, Jana Gómez, Lizzy Hernández, Jorge Sosa and Eder Pesina. Next to them are first place winners from the fiction category Mario Genel; Oscar Navoa winner in the experimental category and Francisco Martínez, second place winner in the documentary category Image courtesy of Montemorelos University

February 9, 2017 | Montemorelos, Nuevo Leon, Mexico | Laura Marrero/IAD Staff

Award ceremony. Image courtesy of Montemorelos University

A group of students from Adventist-operated Montemorelos University recently obtained second place for their film submitted during the 9^th national university Hazlo en Cortometraje, or Do it in Short film, contest held in Mexico City, Mexico.

The contest promotes the creation and cinematography training of university students and former graduates by convening them in an annual for short films that propose creative solutions to the social and environmental challenges facing Mexico and the world.

The project was among the 1,130 short films submitted under fiction, documentary, animation, and experimental categories. The awards ceremony was held Jan. 26, 2017, at Cinépolis Arcos Bosques facilities in Mexico City.

The short film submitted by the students in Oct. of 2016, is entitled “El arbol de la Poesía” or “The Tree of Poetry”, and deals with a professor who teaches that everyone is surrounded by people full of dreams and ideas, and everyone needs to be willing to listen and share together, said Jorge Sosa. Sosa is the creator, director and editor of the short film. The film needed to focus on the 2016 “Creative Citizenship” contest theme, students said.

“The Tree of Poetry” film has multiple messages said Sosa. It is an ode to the power of art to unite people, to break barriers and to delight in simple things. It is also a call to return to paper, to analogue, to the face-to-face talks in the park, to more coexistence, as well as makes an appeal for community growth in moving forward, explained Sosa.

“It was so valuable to be part of this competition because events like these encourage young people to come up with solutions and allows for the expression of ideas beneficial to the social well-being in these times,” said Sosa.

Having won second place inspires him to continue creating and believing that “we can inspire others to make a difference around us,” said Sosa, who studies at the Montemorelos School of Arts and Communication.

“Art, poetry and communication have the power to rebuild the social fabric, becoming better communities, as well as more empathetic, more united and more thoughtful,” said Sosa.

The main character of the short film is Matheus Nascimento, director of the School of Arts and Communication at Montemorelos University. Image courtesy of Montemorelos University

The top winning short films will become part of the BBVA Bancomer Foundation and Cinépolis Foundation and will be screened in different cultural and educational forums across Mexico.

Professor Matheus Nascimento, director of the School of Arts and Communication and who plays the main character of the short film, congratulated the students and said that their accomplishment confirms the school’s mission to teach the students to produce quality audiovisual content as part of the overall mission of the institution. “This is a window of opportunity for them to promote cinema as a great tool with an enormous potential to reach an audience that we otherwise would not be able to reach,” said Nascimento.

The production team received a prize of $30,000 pesos (approximately US $1,470) and all expenses paid to the award ceremony as well as a two-day audio course in Mexico City.

Sosa, who finished a degree in media and communication from Montemorelos University late last year, has participated in other film contests as a student in Montemorelos, including a short film he wrote and directed and which became a finalist film at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF) in 2014, called “Cuidado con el tren” (Be careful with the train); assisted in directing another finalist’s project at the 2012 GIFF called “Al Cristo crucificado” by Helen Hernández, who has graduated from Montemorelos University since then.

To learn more about Montemorelos University, visit um.edu.mx