CLEMENTE PREMIERES TO AUDIENCE OF 1200

Last week, on October the 7th, our second film CLEMENTE premiered to am audience of 1200 people and since has received three excellent reviews.
I am now on my break as I prepare for my trip to LA to negotiate distribution and to engage what we call project the "El Cinco".
We Also engaged the 48 Hour Film Project, this year set at Enchanted Springs Ranch.

Below is a Review from the current.
Well, I don’t feel quite so bad for Macario anymore. (That, or I feel worse. I’m not quite sure which.)

Thing is, even if the protagonist of twentysomething San Antonio filmmaker (and recent UTSA graduate) Pablo Véliz’s debut La Tragedia de Macario had successfully made it across the Texas-Mexico border and secured a job stateside, a glance at Véliz’s second feature, Clemente, suggests that his troubles certainly wouldn’t have ended there.

Indeed, Clemente picks up where Macario would presumably have liked to have left off: Mexican immigrant Clemente (Jorge Jimenez) lives and works in San Antonio, on his way to earning American citizenship. He works steadily as a mechanic, wrestles lucha-libre style on the weekends, and dotes on his family, particularly on 9-ish, chirpy, adoring daughter Dalia (Mariana Wachter). Sure, things aren’t perfect. Clemente’s supercilious mother-in-law (and much of the post-pubescent female contingent of wife Lorena’s family, incidentally) thinks he’s a bum — a perception he’s unable to shrug off entirely. His legal status is uncertain, and apparently stalled; the lawyer overseeing his case is remarkably uninterested in helping. Lorena, bombarded persistently with nagging, motherly admonishments, has begun to wonder whether Clemente only married her in order to fast-track his citizenship. Regardless, the days seem more or less manageable, and the family treads water reasonably happily — until INS agents raid the auto shop, capture Clemente, and deport him to Mexico. Clem must then somehow find his way back across the border and home; his family, low on money and short on prospects, must try, meantime, to survive without him.

Clemente certainly has its problems. Like Macario, it tends frequently to fall back on extended handheld shots, which don’t always seem justified, and serve occasionally to compromise moments. A handful of jerky crane shots are likewise distracting. There are a few choice sequences (one of them is breathtakingly spectacular), but camerawork generally isn’t the film’s strongest point. Acting and script also periodically suffer — somewhat mightily, in some points — but Clemente’s saving graces are its story and its heart, the latter provided by a believable, enduringly winsome father-daughter rapport between Jimenez and Wachter.

As Clemente, Jimenez never falters: there isn’t a moment in which you catch him acting. His performance is natural and effortless, but switches on the intensity/charm when needed. Wachter, a first-time actress, has a bit of difficulty in one or two instances, but otherwise seems as comfortable as Jimenez — she brings a light, unselfconscious presence to the proceedings, and it’s generally an enlivening treat when she’s onscreen.

There are considerable and maddening snags in Clemente. By the final act, however, they have either ceased altogether or ceased to be perceptible, and there is nothing but the absorbing, emotionally resonant story of a man’s journey back to his family. At film’s end, when you’re hit with the big guns — swelling score, the aforementioned stunning visuals, and a judicious poignant kick — go ahead, get a little misty. You’ve earned it. And so, despite its blemishes, has Clemente.

Clemente

Clemente Trailer

Synopsis

Pablo Véliz, director of the 2006 official Sundance selection, “La Tragedia de Macario,” creates his second feature film, Clemente, in honor of the continuous immigrant struggle in America. Clemente an immigrant from Mexico, lives with his wife Lorena and daughter Dalia in San Antonio, Texas where he works as a mechanic, and as a luchador on the weekends. Lorena, an American from a Mexican family understands the complexities of her husband’s legal status and tries to assist him in getting his green card. She visits her lawyer to see what progress has been made on her husband’s case, only to find that his story is one among many and that it takes years to receive legal status. Clemente, a loving father and husband, struggles to keep his family united amidst poverty and the ever-present immigrant oppression they face daily. Despite all of his efforts, misfortune arrives when Clemente is deported, breaking up his family and launching him in a journey back home that challenges his life and faith.

Clemente is based on the real-life story of a Mexican immigrant family struggling to survive in the United States. In the film, Véliz illustrates the harsh reality that many immigrant families face while trying to stay united amidst their illegal status, and with the constant threat of deportation. “With the recent immigration debate, and the deportation raids occurring across the nation, this film shows the struggle that immigrant families living in the United States face on daily basis,” says Véliz. Véliz’s first film, La Tragedia de Macario, won numerous awards including selection into the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the 2006 Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the 2006 South by Southwest Film Festival. La Tragedia de Macario was based on the worst immigrant tragedy in the history of America where 19 immigrants died of asphyxiation, dehydration and heat exposure inside of a locked, double-insulated trailer truck while trying to cross the U.S.-Mexican border. For additional information about the upcoming film along with interview requests, please contact Giovanna Colson-Basurto at 210.267.7732 or email at giovanna@cineveliz.com. CINEVELIZ, INC. is a production company based in San Antonio. Comprised by a group of filmmakers CINEVELIZ’s goals are to create inspiring films. Executive Director, Pablo Véliz established the company in 2005 and since then has produced one feature film, and is currently producing his next.