Santitos

Santitos - the film
Santitos - the filmmakers

Santitos - the film

Santitos is a magical, humorous and passion-filled odyssey about a young widow's search for her missing child. Directed by Alejandro Springall - 1998. Spanish with English subtitles.

"What if I was told my daughter had died and I wasn't able to confirn? her death? My immediate reaction would be to deny it. To prove them wrong I would do what anyone else would in this case: anything and everything. Call on otherworldly forces for guidance? Sure. Set out to find her who knows where in the world? Of course. Become a prostitute? You bet. And in the process of looking for her, I'd most li5cely find myself:" -- Screenwriter Maria Amparo Escandon

"Santitos" is a magical, humorous, and passion-filled odyssey about a beautiful young widow's search for her missing daughter, Blanca. Distraught over Blanca's apparent death, Esperanza (Dolores Heredia) looks to religion and the Saints she has worshiped throughout her life. With the aid of faith and the reluctant support of her priest, Father Salvador (Fernando Torre Lapham), she follows the advice of Saint Judas Tadeos (the patron Saint of Loss Causes) who appears as a vision through her greasy oven window. She has prayed reverently for advice and will not disregard it -- at any cost.

From her humble Mexican village she travels through the most unusual brothels in Tijuana and a rarely seen side of Los Angeles, meeting pimps like Cacomixtle (Demian Bichir) and wrestlers like Angel (Alberto Estrella), all with a suitcase full of hope and ceramic Saints. Phoning in confessions to Father Salvador, she remains as focused on her grief, as he is intrigued by this soap opera of biblical proportions.

"Santitos" takes us into a fascinating world where the mystical and the mundane collide. Through her extraordinary ordeal, this young devout widow's life will have her faith tested -- transforming her from a pious innocent into an independent, sexual and passionate woman.

Santitos - the filmmakers

Alejandro Springall (Director/Producer) studied dramatic literature at Mexico's National University and filmmaking at the London Film School. During his stay in England (1986-1991 ) he worked for Channel Four Television and the BBC, on three documentaries on the cocaine war in Colombia directed by Patricia Castario and Adelaida Trujillo. At the time, he wrote, produced, edited and directed more than ten shorts.

He returned to Mexico City in 1991 and joined producer Bertha Navarro in running the production of "Cronos" which was directed by Guillermo del Toro in 1992. Awarded the Critics' Prize at Cannes, and with nine Academy Awards from the Mexican Academy for the Sciences and Arts, it also won 29 international prizes. Immediately afterwards, Springall and Navarro produced "Dollar Mambo" directed by Paul Leduc in 1993.

Between 1993 and 1995, Springall became Chief Producer of Audiovisuals at the University of Guadalajara. There, he managed to integrate and organize the chairman's committee of the Mexican Film Festival at Guadalajara, and the Screenwriter's Lab from the Sundance Institute.

In his years in Guadalajara he also produced a television series "En Guadalajara fue..." ("Once in Guadalajara") in 1994, a three-time winner of the First Prize at the Latin American Video Biennale. That same year he worked with Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre and David Rose on "Someone Else's America" directed by Goran Paskaljevic. A year later he produced the multi-awarded and Oscar- nominated film "De Tripas Corazon" ("Guts and Heart"), directed by Antonio Urrutia, a film that has broken every international record in sales and distribution in the history of Mexican short films.

In 1994 he started working on "Santitos" which marks his directorial debut. In the meantime, he also wrote, produced and directed the television series "Jalisco: Tiempo de Decisiones" ("Jalisco: Time for Decisions") in 1995. He also collaborated with director John Sayles on the Spanish dialogue for his 1996 film "Men With Guns."

Maria Amparo Escandon (Writer) has published short stories in journals and anthologies in Spanish since 1973, in Mexico, where she has lived most of her life. Since she moved to the United States in 1989, she has published numerous stories in literary publications such as "Prairie Schooner," "Manoa," "On The Bus," "West/Word," and others.

Escandon originally wrote "Santitos" as a short story, which became her first novel, Esperanza's Box of Saints. She wrote the novel, which is being published by Scribner Paperback Fiction / Simon & Schuster, in both Spanish and English. It is now translated into thirteen languages and read in over forty countries. She began experimenting with her story, and soon found she had a film script. The work was admitted to the Sundance Screenwriters' Lab, where she met future director Alejandro Springall.

John Sayles (Executive Producer) is one of America's most celebrated independent filmmakers. His most recent film was "Men With Guns," recently honored with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. ("Santitos" director Alejandro Springall consulted with Sayles on the Spanish language screenplay for the film, which was shot in Mexico.) Sayles' other films include "The Secret of Roan Irish," "Passion Fish" (also Oscar-nominated for Best Screenplay), "City of Hope," "Eight Men Out," "Matewan," "The Brother from Another Planet," "Baby, It's You," "Lianna," and "Return of the Secaucus Seven." Sayles has also written three novels: Pride of the Bimbos ( 1975), Union Dues ( 1977, which received a National Book Award nomination), Los Gusanos ( 1991 ) and a collection of short stories, The Anarchists' Convention ( 1979). He has also written many screenplays for other directors, and works frequently in Hollywood as a "script doctor." He is currently finishing his latest film as a writer/director, entitled "Limbo," which stars David Strathairn and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio.

Xavier Perez Grobet (Director of Photography) studied at the Cinematography Capacitation Center (CCC) in Mexico City. In 1991 he started working as a director of photography with directors such as Jose Luis Garcia Agraz, David Marconi, Hugo Rodriguez, Carlos Carrera, Juan de la Riva, Jorge Cervera, Carlos Garcra Agraz, Alfonso Rosas Priego, Pablo Gomez Saenz, Maureen Gosling and Ellen Osborne, Jude Eberhard and Jaime Humberto Hermosillo.

Carol Dysinger (Editor) is a specialist in 16mm editing as well as 35 mm, video editing; and digital editing as well as film and media editing. Her recognized work includes "Payakan: Amazon Warrior," "Punk," an Emmy nominated nine-part series about the history of Rock and Roll. She directed an edition of "John Lennon Live in New York City" and "The Other Side of Nashville." Cinematically, she has edited "Clash on Broadway," a documentary musical of cinema verite; "Peace Quilt," a documentary to raise money for the project of Nigel Noble and she edited the sound of "Brothers from Another Planet" of John Sayles. Dysinger has taught more than ten years at New York University and is currently the Director of Postgraduate Coursework at the Film School of New York University.

Salvador Parra (Art Director) studied at the National School of Plastic Arts in Mexico and in the l.N.B.A. School of Arts. In the last years he has worked under directors such as Francisco Murguia on "Paty Chula" ("Beautiful Paty"), Guillermo del Toro on "Cronos," Luis Estrada on "Ambar" for which he won the Mexican Academy Award for Best Art Director, Salvador Carrasco on "La otra conquista" ("The Other Conquest"), Paul Leduc on "Dollar Mambo,"

Arturo Ripstein on "La Reina de la noche" ("Queen of the Night"), Marra Novaro on "El Jardín del Eden" ("Garden of Eden"), Claire Peploe on "Rough Magic," Robert Rodriguez on "Desperado," Baz Luhrmann on "Romeo and Juliet ," Alex de la Iglesia on "Perdita Durango" and John Sayles on "Men with Guns."

Eugenio Caballero (Art Director) studied Communications at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, and he later continued his studies of Visual Arts and History of Cinema in the State University of Florence. He completed his training working with directors such as Angel Flores, Daniel Gruener, Alejandro Gonzalez, and many others on commercials, videos, and short films. In cinema he has worked under the direction of Hugo Rodriguez on "En medio de la nada" ("Surrounded by Nothing"), Toshiro Mifune on "Noguchi," Sabina Berman on "Entre Villa y una mujer desnuda" ("Between Pancho Villa and A Naked Woman"), Oscar Blancarte on "Dulces Compariias" ("Sweet Neighbors"), Inigo Vallejo on "La flecha/Katuwira" ("The Arrow"), Salvador Carrasco on "La otra conquista" ("The Other Conquest"), Jude Eberhard on "All Points Between" ("Love Always") and Baz Luhrmann on "Romeo and Juliet."

Monica Neumaier (Costume Designer) studied jewelry design, but she has won notable experience as costume designer. Among her principal work is Marra Novaro's "Danzon," Daniel Gruener's "Amazona," Francisco Athie's "Lolo," Juan Carlos de Llaca's "En el Aire" ("On Air"), Antonio Urrutia's "De Tripas Corazon" ("Guts and Heart"), Erwin Neumaier's "Un hilito de sangre" ("A Stream of Blood"), Ernesto Rimoch's "El Anzuelo" ("The Hook"), Joyce Buriuel's "Las desaparecidas de la Sierra Madre," ("The Lost Women of Sierra Madre"), Arturo Ripstein's "Profundo Carmesi" ("Deep Crimson"), Francisco Athie's "Fibra Optica" ("Optical Fiber").

Carlo Nicolau (Music) has lived in New York since 1988 where he studied composition for film at the Juilliard School and in the Music College of Mannes. He is cofounder and principal composer of Big Rumble Music in New York, a company which is dedicated to composing and producing music for television, radio, and cinema. His most recent work includes Espejismos, Sinergia and Music and Poetry Encounter, a concert of electric-acoustic music which premiered in September, 1996 in the Festival at open doors in the Lincoln Center of New York.

Rosino Serrano (Music) Originally from Madrid, Serrano spent the last fifteen years as a part of the Mexican music scene. He recently moved to New York for Doctoral studies in Jazz composition in the Music School of Manhattan. He has written music for a variety of theatre, dance, and live performances. His film credits include the original score for "Pantopon Rose" directed by Andrea Di Castro. Serrano is a recognized pianist who has played at the side of Eugenia Leon, Betsy Pecanins, for whom he arranged and produced the albums "El Efecto Tequila" ("The Tequila Effect") and "Solo Beatles" ("Only Beatles"). He is cofounder of the Banda Elastica, one of the ensembles most avant-garde of Mexico. Banda Elastica produced five albums which were distributed in Latin America, the United States, and Europe.

About Cine Mexicano: Mexican Film Series

With the Cine Mexicano: Mexican Film Series, The San Diego Latino Film Festival hopes to reach a wider range of the Latino population here in the San Diego/Tijuana region than ever before.

Historically, large numbers of the movie going public have resisted going to film festivals for a variety of reasons; either they felt out of place or felt that it would be too expensive, or difficult to figure out what was playing, or for gosh sakes what would they wear? While many times these fears were unfounded, we at the SDLFF have decided to program a series that will hopefully erase all of those fears and match rare screenings of Mexican films with a larger audience than might have seen them in the past.

We want to bring the films directly into the community like never before.

Welcome to Cine Mexicano: Mexican Film Series!