Mexico City filmmaker Michelle Garza Cervera has been part of recent Audre’s Revenge North American Screenings with her startling and terrifying film La Rabia de Clara. We enlisted the help of our friend Stephanie Suárez to interview Michelle. You can find the original Spanish language version below.
Stephanie is an Industrial Designer/Engineer from Mexico City interested in technological disobedience, pursuing her Masters in anthropology. She also plays guitar in a great punk band with her friends called Riña.
Interview by Stephanie Suárez, Translation by Ximena Suárez, Intro by Mariam Bastani
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an interview with michelle garza
STEPHANIE
I was going to start the interview by saying something about you and what you do but it is kind of weird since I have known you for a while, hahaha. So maybe you could tell us something about yourself?
MICHELLE
Well, I am a girl living in Mexico city that makes movies that are classified as horror or suspense movies, I also play in some punk bands and I have really cool friends that wanted to do this interview to talk about movies.
STEPHANIE
How did you decide to make movies and focus on directing films instead of, I don’t know, photography or art direction?
MICHELLE
Since I was a little girl, I liked writing stories and for some reason I always gravitated toward more audiovisual ideas than literary ones. As a teenager, I spent a lot of time watching movies and I realized that they address issues that are important to me, issues that often times are hard to distinguish or process on a daily basis. I started making films and I realized that, for many reasons, it’s a nightmare, but in the end it is worth as it has allowed me to express ideas that I would not be able to convey otherwise.
STEPHANIE
Where did the idea of your short “La Rabia de Clara” come from? I know that Clara is a very important person in your life. Can you tell us a little bit about this?
MICHELLE
Clara was my great grandmother. She lived in Mexico City during Mexico’s revolution. Her family had resources, but little by little they lost everything until Clara realized it would be a good idea to start working even though it was taboo for a woman to join the workforce back then. This made her family upset because it reflected poorly on their image and was further evidenced tof heir economic hardship. So, after much family strife and arguing, Clara disobeyed her family and started to work as secretary.
They disinherited her and ultimately she even changed her last name. She started a new life from scratch and the first thing she bought with her money was a desk that she gave to me when she died. I still use the desk now to work. Discovering this history affected me a lot and created my great admiration for her. Sometimes we just need to say “fuck the world” to free ourselves. The short does not exactly tell Clara’s story, but I found a metaphorical way to talk about the same issues.
STEPHANIE
Spoiler alert: The relationship in your short between rabies, the illness that these aggressive dogs supposedly have, and anger is really powerful. Since Rabies and Rage is the same word in Spanish, was this an intended and strong political statement? Did you purposely mean to have that double entendre in the title of the film?
MICHELLE
The character is locked in a world where there is a constant struggle to annihilate “savageness” and where rabies/rage to survive, the dogs and the forest representing liberty, is being broken. Well said, Fanis! I found the way of talking about oppression and gender roles through these representations. I was also playing with the use of so many symbols, haha, and yes, I took advantage of the double meaning of the word “rabia” for the title since it is the same rage, sickness and struggle for liberation that consumes Clara.
STEPHANIE
How difficult is it to make a film or short in Mexico? Which are the main obstacles here as Mexican and as a woman?
MICHELLE
In Mexico a great deal of films, most of them, survive from government support. There is almost no private investment in independent cinema because it’s not considered good business. Now, as things are, the situation is worse because this year there has been a 70% cut to funding, of an already low amount of funds, for Mexican movies. I was lucky enough to be in a public filming school and they financed my short films. My fellow students helped me with the production so nobody asked me for a wage or payment. But nowadays, filming without a budget is hard. I find motivation in the fact that I have a group of friends and colleagues who support each other and we trust that we will be able to continue doing independent projects, with little money but a lot of motivation, haha.
Now, about being a woman...it is hard, as in many other aspects, I have had several bad experiences. It is important to stress that discrimination in filming takes place everywhere, the time I felt insulted the most was a shoot in Chicago. What is important, then, is to surround yourself with people that will respect you no matter your gender or race. In the movies, like in every other place, there are morons but there are also nice people, it is just a matter of finding them. Once a friend of mine resigned to a job in a filming project after being insulted, and she was told that if she wanted to be in the filming world she would have to get used to sexism. She responded that one is entitled to make the films that one wants and that if there is not such space, one can always create it. She made the photography for my last film and it was an awesome experience creating something like that with my best friend, so now for us it does exists the films that we want to do.
STEPHANIE
This year you participated in a short film for the second edition of México Bárbaro (a compilation of Mexican short horror films). How was your experience as a woman directing in this type of film and working with other producers or directors? Did your opinion change about the way of doing these films as a woman?
MICHELLE
I really enjoyed doing this film because I could choose my team and I worked with friends with whom I feel comfortable sharing ideas. The short film was part of a compilation so sometimes we had meetings with other directors to read scripts. First, I was excited about these meetings and about meeting others that are also obsessed with horror films. Honestly, we had many differences. Sometimes I felt like in those family gatherings where you are the outsider, the one that does not fit and does not laugh at the jokes.
Not all the time and with everybody, but it did happen in some meetings with certain individuals and regrettably it had much to do with the fact that I was the only woman director. I do not think this is specific to horror movies as I had the chance of interacting with other groups and people in the business that are the opposite to that. But well, in the end it was a good experience and some of the short films included in the compilation are super cool.
STEPHANIE
Sometimes Mexican horror portrays a universe full of severity, blood and gore scenes. Do you think that this version of Mexican horror has something to do with Mexican chauvinism? If so, why? How do you think one can portray sharp visions of Mexico with conscious of feminine and non-binary bodies and gender differences?
MICHELLE
The movies are a reflection or representation of how one perceives life, so it is common to find that Mexican movies reflect chauvinism and terror. One tells the story that is attached to one’s life. We live in a violent world, so it is difficult to tell stories without showing that violence and ultimately it depends on how each one of us lives that violence. The position and privileges that we have affect all that we do. So I think is a matter of awareness: being aware of what you are saying from where you are standing; for me storytelling just for the sake of it does not make sense, just like the gore for the sake of gore loses its strength when it does not have a goal. Of course I like using gore s a resource to say what I think, it can be poignant and disturbing. I am not saying that there should be limits to filmmaking, but I do think it is important analyzing the grounds of your work, otherwise, why making fiction? We might as well read the newspaper or wander around the city if we just aim to transgress just because.
Many of the rules of horror movies are tied to gender roles. Some characters are attractive for this type of movie, like the weak woman that is raped, tortured or killed. I personally have a conflict with this because I disagree with using such painful situations to provoke a morbid reaction. We live in a country with a lot of femicides and killings of trans people, no I do not understand the need of using this terrible reality when you have not even stopped to empathize with those who are living it and just to make any film more “attractive”. When there is a authentic interest in these issues there is a way to address them in horror movies without resorting to the easy maneuvers of showing abuse scenes. What I like about horror and speculative fiction is that it allows you to talk about politics and how we see reality my using metaphors and fantasy. Filmmaking is a lie that allows you to say many truths. No matter the amount of blood, violence and rawness when there is something else to say.
STEPHANIE
I recall that when I started to play the guitar in high school there was always this group of guys really jealous of “music, their girlfriend.” They were pretty aggressive and said that women would never be able to play: the typical guy obsessed with music that felt like a badass because he played fast and his masculinity was based on that. The other day I was recalling all those bands that remind me of those guys, like Tool (particularly the song schism), Porcupine Tree or Pantera, hahaha, some of them allowed themselves to listen to Kittie because they are “super hoy” and played “fast”. Do you have a similar example for movies or directors for this sort of guy?
MICHELLE
I think that a Tool or Pantera for movies would be hard to know. But I have noticed that some people behaving similarly like they are Rob Zombie and Alexander Jodorowsky, hahaha.
STEPHANIE
What are your future plans for films? In a cooler and fairer world, how do you think filmmaking would be?
MICHELLE
I am writing my first feature film, so that is going to take a while. Hopefully I will also be able to collaborate more with friends that I have known thanks to short films. The movies that I like the most are those about an unfair reality, haha, so maybe if the world was more fair I would like it less, but it would be cool if things were different. I wish we could like reality more and fiction less. But, for now, what seems fair to me is to give the cameras to those who have not have them so we can say all that is constantly silenced.
STEPHANIE
Thanks for responding all these questions; would you like to add something else?
MICHELLE
Thanks for inviting me to say nonsense and getting me into trouble with the Mexican chauvinist elite of horror, hahaha. Love you girls.