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Profile | Bertha Navarro, a life dedicated to cinema – El Sol de México

In the 1940s, Mexico was experiencing the Golden Age of national cinema, many productions began to emerge, as well as artists who became iconic. In the midst of that boom, Bertha Navarro was born.

Originally from Mexico City, she lived a very calm and happy childhood; Her parents, she remembers, offered her everything they could, with full hands, she received support and backing in each of her decisions.

“I had a very rich youth, my parents always trusted me a lot,” he stated in an interview with The Sun of Mexico who without studies in cinematography, became one of the most important producers internationally.

It was thanks to that support that Bertha formed a strong, firm character, always motivated to achieve her dreams and goals. Her attitude towards life and her character helped her deal with the machismo that existed within the film medium when she decided to be a film producer, especially because there were many more male producers.

“I have been very strong, very warrior, the ‘you can’t’ was not for me, that’s why immediately after having released my first film, I continued working, until now, no matter what obstacle came my way,” she said.

He began with studies in Anthropology, but it was thanks to director Julio Pliego that he discovered his passion in cinema.

“Pliego was the one that got me most involved in this industry, I half learned how to edit, there were no film schools yet and I started to get very interested, I liked it, but I was also studying Anthropology, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, but in the end everything It works anyway, until there came a time when I dedicated myself to cinema 100 percent,” he expressed.

STORY TELLER

Already in his adolescence, at the age of 15, he understood that his path was to tell stories; At that age she traveled with her sister to Europe, they stayed for more than a month, studying French, she said laughing, but it was more of a fun trip.

His return to the country was by boat, and before making landfall in Mexico, the transport anchored in Cuba, where he learned about a much more interesting culture than the European one.

“It was the year 1960 and in Cuba I began to discover another facet, another world, six months had passed since the triumph of the Revolution and that began to interest me a lot, it impacted me much more than Europe and even though I spent less time there,” he recalled. .

From there he directed his life towards shocking stories that could inspire the audience. She met the Mexican director Paul Leduc, with whom she married months later and as a result of their union, her daughter Valentina was born. But Leduc was a key player in Bertha’s career, since she, together with him, created her debut film “Reed, México insurgente”, in 1970, although it was released two years later, one of the first independent films in Mexico.

Already on track, Bertha Navarro produced more stories such as the shorts “Palacio Chino” (1972), “Extension cultural” (1975) and the films “Crónica del olvido” (1979) and “Historias prohibidas de Pulgarcito” (1980).

“I also wanted to direct, but that became more complicated for me, although I did make some documentaries and various things and then I was also making documentary films, I was in Nicaragua in ’78 and ’79 and we filmed everything from the entrance to the triumph. The other day I found that there was a copy of the film “Victory of a People in Arms” (1980) in the Filmoteca, although I gave all the material to the Nicaraguans because it was their story; “I was very idealistic back then, now I’m afraid it wasn’t what we thought.”

DUMBBELL WITH GUILLERMO DEL TORO

Later, in the filmmaker’s professional life, a diamond arrived, whom she polished for a time so that it could shine worldwide, his name?: Guillermo del Toro.

The man from Guadalajara met Bertha during the making of the film “Cabeza de Vaca” (1991), by Nicolás Echeverría, where he worked as a makeup artist, but by then, Del Toro already had a story written, he just needed a push to take off and it was Bertha who supported him.

“He went to study makeup because of what he wanted to do in his projects, a much more attractive cinema and he did a lot of the design of the indigenous communities in “Cabeza de Vaca” and there he presented his script for “Cronos” to me, and I immediately loved it and we made the movie,” in 1992.

Then, both worked on “The Devil’s Backbone” (2001) and “Pan’s Labyrinth” in 2006, a film that won three Oscars. Together with Del Toro, Bertha Navarro founded the production company Tequila Gang and she also has another production company, Salamandra Producciones, in partnership with Alejandra Moreno Toscano.

Considered a promoter of Ibero-American cinema, she also worked on “Armed Men” (1997), by John Sayles; “Madman’s Fever” (2001), by Andrés Wood; “Asesino seriously”, (2002), by Antonio Urrutia; “Rabia” (2009), and “Without dead there is no carnival” (2016), by Sebastián Cordero; and “Sonora” (2018), by Alejandro Springall, among others.

Thanks to these films, Bertha Navarro was awarded with various recognitions, such as the Coral Award at the Havana Film Festival, which paid tribute to her in 1998 for her career in Latin American cinema, the Silver Mayahuel at the International Festival of Guadalajara Cinema, in 2008 for the importance of his career within the cinematographic medium, the Ariel de Oro in 2016, and the National Prize for Arts and Literature in 2020.

TIRELESS AT 80 YEARS OLD

Since 1993, he has coordinated a scriptwriting laboratory in collaboration with the Sundance Institute and the Toscano Foundation, which seeks to raise the quality of Spanish-speaking scripts. In fact, it was through this laboratory that she came across her recent film “Future Times”, director Víctor Checa’s debut film, which is currently in theaters.

“The reason why I wanted to support the production of this film is that the father and son relationship shown in the story was very important, that the boy practically takes responsibility for daily life and distances himself from the father, the machine that It drives them crazy and the topic that it rains in Lima, it never rains and everything has a harmony, it is a way of telling a very beautiful story, I had never come across a project that was father and son,” he said.

In more than five decades of experience, the only thing Bertha regrets is not having done much more. But at 80 years old, the producer has great mental, and even physical, agility. Her memory is a great characteristic, she does not miss any date, she remembers every detail; Therefore, she does not want to stop working.

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“We have to trust in ourselves, in our talent, in making films, I know that there are also many changes, the public watches more films at home than in movie theaters, there are many changes now, but we always have to tell stories and do your best. For example, I still like movie theaters more than anything else, because you share the emotion of what you’re watching with others and I get more distracted at home when I’m watching something.

“I am currently working on a project that I have coming up, I will tell you later, but as long as I can, I want to continue doing this,” he concluded.

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