The Films of Carlos Reygadas

EXTRA: Straight Talk with Dean Otto

Dean Otto is the Assistant
Curator of Film/Video at the Walker Art Center. I spoke with him briefly
about the work put into obtaining Carlos Reygadas’ Silent Light
for its Minnesota premiere, and his feelings on this talented and important
filmmaker’s work.

The Rake: How were you
able to get this film at the Walker? What was the process, and how difficult
was it to obtain, as I know it doesn’t have a distributor and hasn’t
had an official theatrical release?

Dean Otto: We’ve been
working with Carlos and the French sales agent who has the worldwide
rights to the film for several months to find a date that a print was
available and that worked for his travel schedule. In the meantime,
the U.S. rights were purchased by Tartan, but they didn’t have a print
by the time of our screening. We had to use a print from the Canadian
distributor Seville to make the program possible.

The Rake:
How were you able to get Reygadas to show up for the Q & A?

DO: Carlos had known
the Walker through former Film/Video Curator Cis Bierinckx and had been
interested in traveling here to present his films. As we were launching
our ongoing Cinemateca series we followed up to invite him here to present
Silent Light, which premiered at Cannes last year.

The Rake:
How did you discover his work?

DO:
Carlos’ work first was discovered by former Walker Film/Video curator
Cis Bierinckx who programmed the film JAPON at the Walker in 2003 after
seeing the film at the Rotterdam Film Festival. Since then, we’ve followed
his film and career.

The Rake: Are you a
fan of Reygadas’ work?

DO: I am a big fan of
his work.

The Rake:
What is your favorite film of his?

DO: For me, Silent
Light is the film that I appreciate the most for its bold visual
style.

The Rake: What was your
mission in bringing this film to Minneapolis?

DO:
We value following filmmakers over the course of their career and we
wanted to highlight this striking film from Mexico as part of our Cinemateca
series which features films from Latin America.