Francesco Taboada Tabone
He studied a Bachelor's Degree in Communications at the Monterrey Institute for Technological and Higher Studies in Monterrey. He started his cinematographic career with the short films La Julia and Enchiladas Suizas that received the “Prix de jeunes realisateurs” at the “Jeunnes realisateurs” Film Festival in Sion, Switzerland. He is currently a professor of Mexican history, and documental script writing at the Centro Morelense de las Artes. He writes regularly for several publications, as La Jornada Morelos and Voices of Mexico and was the recipient of two scholarships from the National Foundation for Culture and the Arts.
His first feature film The Last Zaptistas puts him at the vanguard of Latin American Cinema with more than 10 international awards: Best Ópera Prima at the Festival de Cine Documental Santiago Álvarez, Santiago de Cuba, Best Documentary and Best Photography at the Los Ángeles Chicano Film Festival, Premio a la Excelencia Cinematográfica given by Once TV at the Santa Cruz Independent Latino Film Festival, Special Award of the Jury at the Festival de Cine Pobre de Gibara, Cuba. The Last Zapatistas has also participate as an official selection in more than 20 film festivals in three continents and has been nominate as Best Documentary in Film at the Imagen Awards, Hollywood, and nominee for the Ariel by the Mexican Academy of Cinematography Arts and Sciences. Francesco received the Cecilio Robelo Award in Arts from the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos and the Tecnológico de Monterrey for his research in zapatism oral tradition.
He has been invited to give conferences at many universities and cultural institutes like Center for Latin American Studies at the Berkeley University, Department of Latin Studies at Pomona College, the Harvard Film and Video Archives at the Harvard University, the School for Image and Sound in Caracas, Venezuela and the Faculty of Political Sciences at the UNAM.
In 2004 he produced the radio series Héroes en la Radio, Voces Zapatistas and receive an awardat the Quinta Bienal Internacional de Radio. In 2005 the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez invited him to the Alo Presidente television program, being the first international film director to be interviewed by him.
Francesco is at present working on three new documentaries Maguey, Tin Tan and Revolución Bolivariana, he is going for his master´s degree in Mesoamerican Studies at the UNAM and promoting his second feature film Pancho Villa, La Revolución no ha terminado (www.franciscovilla.com.mx). He premiered his last feature documentary “13 PUEBLOS EN DEFENSA DEL AGUA, EL AIRE Y LA TIERRA” that portraits the struggle of the indigenous people of Morelos trying to defend their natural resources from the government urban development strategies and trying to reach their autonomy. www.13pueblos.com
Director’s statement
“The conditions of injustice, misery and government corruption that exist today are almost the same as those prevailing in Mexico at the beginning of the twentieth century, when the Revolution broke out. Our objective is to denounce this historic spiral so that the people of America do not forget the inheritance flowing in their blood from the men and women who, throughout the centuries, have given their lives for an ideal.”