A bit of Mexico appears in Spokane

Marshall Peterson, the Spokane guy who spends most of his time these days living in Mexico and taking photos of Mexican rock bands and at Mexican film festivals, saw my blog post on “Children of Men” director Alfonso Cuarﾗn. That’s his photo of the filmmaker below.

Here’s what Marshall had to say:

“I got the chance to meet him and he is a cool guy, especially considering he’s ‘famous.’ Not sure if you remember, but I came back (to the Northwest) for Bumbershoot – the largest contemporary arts and music festival on the continent! – in September because my Mexican filmmaker buddy Alvaro Zendejas’ short was chosen for One Reel (the best-attended short film festival in the U.S.) because I’d passed it on to SIFF, and this year SIFF was in charge of programming One Reel.

“Anyway, after Seattle we headed to NYC. Lincoln Center’s Latin Beat was happening and I was covering it for a Mexican cinema magazine, so I dragged my buddy Alvaro along to a screening of Felipe Cazals’ (one of the most important Mexican filmmakers of the last 30 years) ‘Canoa.’ I knew that Cuarﾗn was gonna show up to introduce the film, so when he finished I told Alvaro (who is a big fan) that he’d be outside in the lobby with nothing to do. He went running, hung out with him for a while, then returned elated.

“After the film, we went out and I shot some photos. Here’s one of them with Cuarﾗn, one of the more important filmmakers today, with Alvaro, someone who could be well-known, too, one day. Alvaro has two shorts in the running for Ariels (the Mexican Oscars), which is quite an accomplishment, especially considering he’s only 22.”

Below: Mexican filmmakers Alvaro Zendejas (left) and Alfonso Cuarﾗn pose together outside New York’s Lincoln Center during September’s Latin Beat film festival.

Photo by Marshall Peterson