The Hispanic Institute is honored to support the School of the Arts and the Instituto Cervantes New York in “Foundations of Mexican Independent Cinema," an event curated by film scholar Valerie Pires and featuring screenings and discussions with scholars and filmmakers focused on the convictions, creative world, 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 (En el balcón vacío, 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. Day 1 will take place at the Lenfest Center for the Arts and Day 2 will be at the Cervantes Institute of New York. Please reserve tickets if you wish to attend, and view the entire programming here.
