Mexico says it’s a wrap

President Vicente Fox provoked howls of outrage from the country’s filmmaking community with plans to end the Mexican government’s decades-long involvement in the movie industry by lowering the curtain on a state-run film school and the agency in charge of movie promotion and financing, as well as selling the storied Churubusco Azteca studio.

The proposal was outlined in the budget Fox submitted to the Mexican Congress last week but its potential impact on the country’s movie industry didn’t become clear until this week.

Fox’s plan comes as the film industry is flourishing after faltering in the 1990s. Nearly 30 movies are being produced in Mexico this year, up from just five in 1995 and eight in 2000. Industry figures say government support has helped spur the rebound, in addition to fostering private investment in production of commercial films and construction of modern multiplex theaters.

Without some government aid from the funding agency IMCINE, even independently financed films will have a hard time getting made, filmmakers contend. In addition, without government backing, most first-time directors will not get their foot in the door, said Alfonso Cuaron, director of the upcoming “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.”

“I had my fights with [IMCINE] but I needed the institution to support my first movie,” said the director, referring to his film “Love in the Time of Hysteria.” “I am making ‘Harry Potter’ because IMCINE held my hand on my first picture,” Cuaron added.

The proposed cuts are part of Fox’s austerity package, which includes the sale of other government-supported entities, including Notimex, the government-owned news agency, and Fonart, which promotes the sale of Mexican arts and crafts. Some observers see his proposal to ax film-industry support as a gambit to force legislative cooperation on broader tax reform.

Leading members of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, say they will fight to keep the state-run film institutions in business. By Tuesday afternoon, several petitions and letters of opposition from Mexico’s filmmaking community were sent to Fox.

“This could be a bluff, but the movie community is worried. We will mount an initiative so that this doesn’t happen, a struggle to keep this annihilation from coming to pass,” said the PRI’s Filemon Arcos Suarez, who chairs the Culture Commission in the House of Deputies.

Critics point out that the trims would only save the government about $10 million -- the amount allocated annually for the Churubusco film studio, the movie agency and the Cinematographic Training Center.

“It’s incredible that right now, when Mexican cinema has caught worldwide attention, instead of saying ‘let’s support this industry more,’ they would do the exact opposite,” said Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, director of the upcoming “21 Grams” and 2001’s “Amores Perros,” which is one of several recent Mexican films nominated for an Oscar. “This is a move typical of a president who wears cowboy boots.”

Industry figures insist that government backing is a good investment in Mexican culture. Since 1997, IMCINE has given 44 small loans to directors who otherwise might not have made their movies. Many independently financed productions depend on at least a quarter of their budget coming from government funding.

The film school, one of only two in Mexico, turns out about 15 graduates a year. Graduates include director Carlos Carrera, whose 2002 movie “The Crimes of Father Amaro” was nominated for the best foreign language film Oscar, and Rodrigo Prieto, cinematographer of “Amores Perros” and 2002’s “Frida.”

“What is worrisome is the lack of sensitivity on [Fox’s] part,” said Carrera, whose “Padre Amaro” was partially financed with government money. “Unfortunately, the Mexican movie business is not at a stage where producers can recoup most of their investment. We still need the government to back film as a form of culture or Mexican cinema will cease to exist.”

“It’s an aberrant proposal by a government that doesn’t know what it’s doing,” said Sergio Molina, president of Canacine, a trade association of Mexico’s film producers and technicians. “It’s a government that has never promoted culture, of which film is one of the biggest exponents.”

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Mexican Interior Undersecretary Jose Luis Duran promised, without giving details, that the government will “compensate for the eventual disappearance of IMCINE if the new fiscal package is approved.” Not everyone in Mexican film thinks IMCINE and the studio should remain under the government’s wing. Honored director Arturo Ripstein, whose films have received IMCINE financing, says the agency is top-heavy and should be reorganized.

“The question is whether the state should be nurturing culture or commercial films, and that is a difficult one,” Ripstein said, adding that IMCINE has strayed from its original purpose of financing just experimental films such as his.

The institution has had its share of controversy. Many filmmakers, such as Cuaron, Luis Estrada (“Herod’s Law”) and Salvador Carrasco (“The Other Conquest”), have had public feuds with the agency, accusing its leadership of ineptitude and corruption. Over the past 10 years, filmmakers have had such a hard time finding sources of funding that many have left for Hollywood or found independent investors. Martha Sosa, who produced “Amores Perros” and the most recent Diego Luna film, “Nicotina,” said getting rid of IMCINE is a drastic move, but that the agency could be revamped.

“We have all complained about IMCINE,” said Sosa, for whom the most worrisome of the proposals is the plan to end funding for the school. “This might be a good time for reinvention, but not for them to disappear.”

Film students at the government-run school are also given access to equipment and the sound stages at the Churubusco Azteca studio, which provides invaluable practical experience.

The sale of the studio could bring a windfall of tens of millions of dollars for the government. Located in a prime residential area in the capital, it is the only remaining studio of five the government once owned.

Falling oil prices, increasing tax avoidance and anemic economic growth overall are the main reasons the Fox government is looking for corners to cut, said Fausto Hernandez, a professor at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching. “But they know what they spend on IMCINE and the studio is peanuts, so it must be part of some larger strategy to get their reforms passed.”

Cuaron says the proposals are symbolic of where Fox’s government interests lie.

“These guys are just numbers crunchers -- they see a number in red and they want to get rid of it,” he said. “What is he going to do next, sell [the pyramid] Teotihuacan and turn it into a mall?”