Director from Yucatán debuts new feature-length film
1966: A Story of Dzilam de Bravo is the first feature film by Yucatecan director Elián Magaña.
The film tells the love story of two young people against the backdrop of the arrival of Inés, a devastating category-five hurricane that hit the Yucatan Peninsula in 1966.
But as Elian Magaña told Yucatán Magazine, the story is also deeply personal as Dzilam de Bravo, a small coastal community north of the Yucatán Peninsula, is also his home.
“I wanted to tell this story that is so ingrained into the minds of just about everyone in the community, even so, many years after the fact,” said the director.
The outline for the script began with research by Elián Magaña himself but started to come together when he had the opportunity to meet with Doña Elisa, who is now 96 and was a young woman back in 1966. During these interviews, stories of her husband, Don Bartolo, and his life as a fisherman began to surface, giving shape to the narrative.
During production, the team was challenged and had the opportunity to film Bery and Milton during last year’s hurricanes. Though risky, the chance to film scenes at sea in small fishing boats gives 1966: A Story of Dzilam de Bravo a dose of realism and high stakes that would be difficult to replicate on an independent movie budget.
The main roles filled by Eric Nadal Herrera (Bartolo), Liandry Cabrera (Elisa), and Karina Nadal Mézquita (Laura), as well as those of other cast members and extras, were filmed during weekends in Dzilam de Bravo. During the week, the production team dealt with design, rewrites, and logistics.
Because virtually everyone involved in the production is from Dzilam de Bravo, and all scenes are filmed in the town, the community takes center stage, feeling like an integral part of the movie but, at times, even as its protagonist.
For example, in past projects like La Dadora de la Felicidad, the production team was small. Still, despite the challenges, they were determined to tell this story to the very best of our ability.
“Because my team is small, I have often had to take on the role of producer, director, and photographer all at the same time, always doing my best to improve and learn from my mistakes,” Magaña says with humility and stern determination.
Aside from dealing with the weather, the production team also dealt with something they had never been confronted with before: the use of special effects. Though these are relatively modest, they added complexity to the creative process that everyone had to learn about on the fly.
According to Elián Magaña, his love for film began at a young age when he, his brother and his friends started playing around with a webcam to create shorts.
“It was a very formative period. Of course, the shots we were making were fundamental, but they lay in my mind the idea that although hard, this was doable,” said Magaña. But it was not until seeing Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar in the movie theater that the budding cinephile seriously thought, “This is going to be my life.”
Moving on from the family webcam to a basic video camera, Magaña began to experiment and create even more shorts that highlighted his day-to-day experience and the traditions of the Yucatán Peninsula, including Day of the Dead and the fanciful stories of fishermen in his community.
Yucatán has a small but growing independent film scene, however, a lack of investment and resources means most productions are hampered by shoestring budgets.
1966: A Story of Dzilam de Bravo is now showing on Fridays starting 6:30 p.m. March 14 at the Olympo Cultural Center and a projection screen in his hometown of Dzilam. The cost for tickets is 70 pesos, all of which Magaña says will go to his next project, which he says with a grin will be bolder and bigger than anything he has created to date.
For more information on Tyred Studios, Magaña’s studio behind 1966, future screenings and news about upcoming streaming options, visit their Facebook page.
Senior Editor Carlos Rosado van der Gracht is a Mexican expedition/Canadian photographer, adventure leader, and PhD candidate. Born in Mérida, Carlos holds multimedia, philosophy, and translation degrees from universities in Mexico, Canada and Norway.
