We have to accept the world has become this place where we have to interact with people who are very different from us.
— Diego Luna
'Abel' is about the father I don't want to be and the boy I used to be.
You exorcise the things that haunt you. That's one good thing about any artistic discipline.
I saw 'A New Hope' on my Vidamax because I came a little late to the party.
We should be talking about celebrating our differences, understanding that those differences make us richer and stronger.
I enjoy working with actors so much and having the chance to be surprised by them.
The life of Cesar Chavez is a story that must be told. He was a man who dedicated his life to accomplishing change in a community that really needed it. He helped a community that was being poorly treated by instilling confidence and providing them with dignity.
I've gone across that border many times. My son was born in the United States; he is also a Mexican-American with the two passports.
Directors should be paid for promising impossible things.
As consumers, we are making choices,and we allow things to exist, and we celebrate the existence of things. And we can also boycott those things we don't want to be part of.
Cinema is a mirror that can change the world.
I connect much more with theatre actors than with cinema actors - insofar as you can speak of 'cinema actors' in Mexico, because there isn't a big film industry.
Boxing is about hunger.
There's a lot of freedom to do anything you want in Mexico. It's just that that freedom belongs to a few. It's a huge country with a big contrast. There is this big inequality, so those like us that have the chance to do things, we know we are very lucky.
What we have in Mexico and Latin America is a wide diversity of voices, but in Mexico, for example, we haven't been able to get a lot of the movies into theaters.
If your neighbor's reality changes, yours will change as well.
As producers, we choose who to work with and what films to get involved with. There's no rule, but it has to come from an honest place. It has to come from a necessity.
I always liked Darth Vader. I remember, when I was a kid, I went to the toy store for the Darth Vader pencil case. I took that to school for years.
As an actor, you are always someone else's tool. You can have a connection with them, and you can share their point of view, but ultimately, you are helping them reflect.
When I was a kid, if I liked something from merchandising, I'd have to go to the toy store.
Audiences want to feel represented, want to be able to empathize with the characters and the stories they are seeing on the screen.
If we put our differences aside, we can do great things.
I try to always bring topics to the table that matter, topics that I think need to be discussed and reflected on.
In Mexico, this idea that fathers go away is really deeply accepted because, for so long, so many men have had to leave to work in the United States.
Film is a tool of change.
For me, the relationship with my father is the most important thing that I have.
Sadly, there are a lot of ignorant people that have access to a microphone.
Mexico is where I fell in love for the first time; it's where my family lives... so however much I travel, I inevitably return there.
When I was young, football and theatre were the only places I was happy. I remember school as just what happened in between the things that I liked.
I would say doing film is all about trust and conviction. It's about believing in an idea.
When we started CANANA, I wasn't married, so I guess I was married to the idea of CANANA.
The beauty of football is that it's about 11, and another five, at least, are sitting outside. You cannot get competitive.
The nice thing about my job is that it allows me to look deeper into issues and then tell stories with that information.
In film, normally what happens is that not many people work more than once. Normally, it breaks couples. It doesn't make them.
I've always wanted to be a part of the 'Star Wars' world; the films were very important to me. All my older cousins were huge fans, and I wanted to belong to that community.
To me, directing movies is just that. It's a need to question myself and set the things that disturb me on the table.
Sometimes as a boy, you really want to feel older and mature.
I started tweeting with the first film I directed. I found it the best way to promote it and to connect to the audience, and since then, it's been very helpful.
To me, war is so far from something I understand.
I definitely promise to always make films about issues that matter to me.
California is one of the strongest states with one of the solidest economies but, at the same time, ignores the reality of its farm workers.
Being at a film festival reminds me of the power of film. The power that we have in our hands. Telling specific stories about personal matters can start the debate that is needed today, and that connect you with realities that you had no idea were connected.
My mother died when I was two years old; that's why I have so many daddy issues. And that's why my relationship with my dad is so strong.
I don't want to come and conquer American films or the American market. I just want to do movies that I care about, stories that I like.
I don't make films for myself; I make them in order to communicate with an audience.
The first fight I ever saw live was the first Castillo-Corrales match in Las Vegas in 2005.
As an actor, you have to believe in the point of view of a director; as a director, you have to be able to express what your point of view is and invite everybody to join you on that journey. So it's always about opening up.
You see Mexican cinema in festivals throughout the world, and you see Mexican directors getting recognized at Cannes, at the Oscars, in Berlin, but the question is, What is the end result of that in terms of the market? That's where it's lacking.
Acting is about communicating, reacting, and sharing - and friendship is about all of those things, too.
I always wondered why there weren't any films about Cesar Chavez. There are movies about other civil rights leaders in this country, but why not Chavez?
