13/03/2017 - We met up with Julio López, Emerging Producer 2017 from guest country Mexico, to discuss his work with the production company Cine Murciélago

We met up with Julio López, Emerging Producer 2017 from guest country Mexico, to discuss his work with the production company Cine Murciélago.

What qualities should a documentary producer have these days?
I think there are three areas of work in which contemporary producers must develop their skills. The first is their artwork. A producer must be aware of the type of discourse he or she wants to create and apply all their knowledge and creative ability to communicate it. Creative producers not only help the directors to create artistic pieces, they are artists in their own right. The second one has to do with the planning of each of the production phases. A producer must be able to carry out each phase of this process, which is usually long and fraught with difficulties. The producer’s management ability forms a very important part of the success of the process. The third one has to do with your ability to understand how contemporary film industry works. Films are made for an audience to see, so it is essential that producers know how to include their films into the film circuits that are becoming more complex every day.

To what extent do you, as a producer, get involved in the creative process?
I like to participate in the whole artistic process, but I think the director should always make the final decisions. I think that it is very important to know what the director is looking for and what the director wants to say to help them tell their story and shoot their films.

What projects do you have underway?
I have just launched a new Mexican production company called Cine Murcielago (Bat Films), and we are developing several fiction and documentary projects in Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador. The most advanced are the features Slash and Burn (Roza), directed by Andrés Rodríguez, and Us (Nosotros) directed by Joaquín Ruano. Also, this year I’m in the distribution stage of the last two documentaries that I produced for director Marcela Zamora, The Offendend (2016) and Comandos (2017). Finally, I’m also in the post-production stage with my first documentary feature as a director; the film is called The Battle of the Volcano. 

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Emerging Producers is a promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the Emerging Producers 2018 edition is 31 March, 2017. Click here.