tigers are not afraid – ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

MOVIE OF THE WEEK December 27, 2019: The Best of A Banner Year

December 21, 2019December 21, 2019 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments after the wedding, always be my maybe, anthropocene, be natural, family, for sama, honey boy, honeyland, Maiden, motw, Movie of the Week, one child nation, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, roll red roll, team motw, the nightingale, tigers are not afraid, woman at war

Late December is a good time for a Movie of the Week recap: 38 of our selections have been femme-helmed, and all are about women — biodocs about influential game-changers like Tracy Edwards, Toni Morrison and Dr. Ruth, as well as narratives about complex fictional power players such as Claire in The Nightingale, Molly in Late Night and Orna in Working Woman. With inspiring stories about women’s struggles for equality and other key issues, AWFJ’s #MOTW roster shows the range and high level of achievement of women working in film. Here Team #MOTW presents our favorites. Wonder what’s in store?

SPOTLIGHT

SPOTLIGHT October 2019: Issa Lopez, Filmmaker, TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

September 29, 2019September 30, 2019 Leslie Combemale 0 Comments guillermo del toro, horror genre, issa lopez, spotlight, tigers are not afraid

Writer/director Issa López is an exciting new voice in genre film, although she’s been a successful figure in the Mexican film industry since the early part of the 21st century. Her aesthetic is anchored in a blend of magical realism and the grittiness and stark reality of the real world, all seen from a horror-drenched version of the female gaze. She found success early in her career writing rom-coms and comedies that broke box office records, but left that all behind to focus on creating genre films true to her own creative inclinations, most recently resulting in the brilliant Tigers Are Not Afraid.

Movie of the Week Reviews

MOVIE OF THE WEEK September 6, 2019: TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID

September 1, 2019September 2, 2019 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments betsy bozdech, Cate Marquis, issa lopez, jennifer merin, Juan Ramón López, leslie combemale, liz whittemore, loren king, marina antunes, maryann johanson, mexican films, motw, Movie of the Week, mrilyn ferdinand, nikki baughan, Pam Grady, Paola Lara, sandie angulo chen, Sheila Roberts, susan wloszczyna, tigers are not afraid

Gritty and raw, Issa Lopez’ dark urban fairy tale Tigers Are Not Afraid (titled Vuelven in Spanish, which translates to They Come Back) centers on the devastating consequences of the drug trade, showing how the cartels’ criminal ways affect everyone in their path — including children, whose innocence disappears as quickly as the grown-ups in their lives.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Jennifer Merin

August 26, 2019September 1, 2019 Jennifer Merin 0 Comments issa lopez, mexican films, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

Tigers Are Not Afraid, written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Issa Lopez, is a gripping and often hard to watch fantasy-clad drama that revolves around a group of Mexican tweens — a girl and four boys — whose ‘disappeared’ parents were victims of the ongoing drug-related violence that is decimating communities across the country.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Leslie Combemale

August 26, 2019September 4, 2019 Leslie Combemale 0 Comments issa lopez, mexican films, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

When Tigers Are Not Afraid is not busy scaring you, it’s breaking your heart. Social activism meets horror meets coming-of-age in this bracing, gorgeously shot, intense multiple award-winning film that’s both written and directed by famed and favored Mexican filmmaker Issa Lopez.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Susan Wloszczyna

August 26, 2019September 1, 2019 Susan Wloszczyna 0 Comments issa lopez, mexican films, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

Tigers Are Not Afraid, infused with a sense magical realism and featuring some rather gripping performances by child actors, is a gritty cinema-verite crime drama that feels like Peter Pan, the Lost Boys and Wendy met in Pan’s Labyrinth while protecting each other on the mean streets of Mexico. As drug wars regularly break out and gunfire is a regular occurrence, young children define themselves as warriors and fend for themselves in a parent-less jungle where crime, corruption and danger lurk around every corner.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Sheila Roberts

August 26, 2019September 1, 2019 Sheila Roberts (Archived Contributor) 0 Comments issa lopez, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

Mexican filmmaker Issa Lopez knows how to tell a dark fairy tale about war through the eyes of children with

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Cate Marquis

August 26, 2019September 1, 2019 Cate Marquis 0 Comments issa lopez, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

Tigers Are Not Afraid, a mix of magical realism and horror film about children living under the devastating conditions of the Mexican drug wars, starts in a reassuringly normal place, a classroom full of grade school children working on an assignment. That assignment is to create a fairy tale story. One preteen girl writes about a prince who wants to become a tiger, because tigers are never afraid.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID – Review by Loren King

August 26, 2019September 1, 2019 Loren King 0 Comments issa lopez, motw, Movie of the Week, tigers are not afraid

Issa Lopez sets her raw and gripping fantastical tale in an unnamed Mexican city that’s been ravaged by warring drug cartels, the population decimated by ongoing violence, leaving elderly and children as victims in its wake. The city is like a lawless ghost town in a western, where neglected kids peer from the shadows and play just feet away from a corpse; where shots ring out at random; and where everything in sight is broken, defaced and abandoned.

Reviews

TIGERS ARE NOT AFRAID — Review by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

August 15, 2018September 1, 2019 Alexandra Heller-Nicholas 0 Comments fantastic fest, horror, issa lopez, melbourne international filmfestival, tigers are not afraid

With her 2017 feature Tigers are Not Afraid, Mexican filmmaker Issa López became the first woman to ever win the Best Horror Director award at Austin’s Fantastic Fest where it premiered. López’s potent and deeply beautiful film tells the story of a group of children abandoned as a result of the brutal dominance of a powerful drug cartel in their urban Mexican neighbourhood. Centred around an extraordinary performance by young actor Paola Lara in her feature film debut, she plays eleven-year-old Estrella who – like many of the children with whom she unites in an attempt to survive a world of unimaginable violence and pain – while often fearless, must necessarily negotiate her experiences from her youthful perspective.