Foundations of Mexican Independent Cinema

The two-day event “Foundations of Mexican Independent Cinema,” presented by Columbia University School of the Arts and Instituto Cervantes New York, is curated by film scholar Valerie Pires.

The event features screenings and discussions with scholars and filmmakers focused on the convictions, creative works, 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 (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.

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).

Participants in discussions on both days following the film screenings will include 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), Celia Viada Caso (filmmaker), Issa García Ascot (filmmaker), and Professor Ron Gregg.