Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre Festival 2016 - Interview with Ariana Bouzón

Present at the 17th edition of the Rojo Sangre Festival of Buenos Aires (preview here), JoRafCinema interviewed the producer of the Festival.

JoRafCinema: Could you start by telling us about you? Who you are and what is your background? 
Ariana Bouzón: My name is Ariana Bouzón, I have been the producer of the Festival for nine years. I studied cinematographic production.
JRC: At the beginning the festival was more informal, how did it start?
AB: It was one day of screenings, a few movies, all of them Argentinian and independent, i.e. with a low budget. There was a production company called Farsa Producciones, composed of a lot of friends, and they started to make very low budget films like Plaga Zombie. This Festival began by screening this kind of movies. 
JRC: Low budget but full-length. 
AB: Yes we were screening a lot of shorts but this one for example was full-length. 
JRC: So only Argentinian movies at the beginning, and this for how long? 
AB: In the second edition of the Festival already there were some Latin-American films, and in the fourth edition from the rest of the World starting with Spain, USA, France... And in 2004 we started the International Competition.
JRC: How many people are working for the Festival?
AB: We are about thirty. Everyday there are five young people shooting videos around, you may have seen them, and editing them for our YouTube channel. They make one or two videos per day.
Note that all of us a volunteers, we are not paid for what we do, neither me nor the director, the programmer... We are here because we love this activity, to spread our culture and let the people know about it.
JRC: How much of the year do you work for the Festival?
AB: I have a lot of responsibility so I have to work the whole year in fact. For example since five years there exist the Medoza Rojo Sangre [another town in West Argentina].
JRC: Oh yes I have heard about it, when is it?
AB: In July. It will run this year again so we have to organize it. It always shows movies from the previous edition of the Buenos Aires Rojo Sangre so we have to select them. During the whole year we have small activities, and of course in August, September and October we are working full-time at the BARS.
JRC: I have learned that there are not so many Fantasy Film Festivals in South America although there is a public for it. It seems to me that people would love it.
AB: Yes we are the oldest Festival. There is another called Fantaspoa in Porto Allegre (Brazil) and Montevideo Fantastico in Uruguay. In Santiago de Chile there used to be Chile Rojo Sangre some years ago but it was cancelled, I don't know exactly what happened. Then there are two Festivals in Mexico, another in Puerto Rico, maybe in the North of America it is more common. There is also a small Festival in a town in Provencia Buenos Aires since 4-5 years for short films.
JRC: So you are friends with all those Festivals but there is not a more organized connection like there is the Méliès Price in Europe?
AB: Not anymore. Ten years ago there was something called Fantafestivales but no more.
JRC: You do have an International Competition but it is clear that you focus on South American and Argentinian movies in particular. It is usually difficult to find Genre movies from South America, except for the ones that export well to other Festivals, so I was surprised to see that you have tens of them. How important is that for you?
AB: Maybe the public in the World don't love Ibero-American movies, they prefer movies in English, so it is indeed a sort of deliberate policy of the Festival to show a lot of them. In this edition are represented Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Uruguay, Chile... and it is the same every year. Last year we had a movie from Cuba! And the director came here to talk about his experience in making movies in Cuba, that was very instructive.
JRC: How is the programming done? Is somebody going to see the movies in other Festivals?
AB: Oh no we have no budget for that! (laughs). We have to watch them in streaming.
JRC: Even the new ones? Do you ask the production companies to send them to you?
AB: Yes we try to get the screeners. For example this year with the latest movie from Ruggero Deodato [director of Cannibal Holocaust that was guest of the Festival this year], we ask "Pleeease could you send us a screener so that we can watch it, we are considering showing the movie at our Festival!". Sometimes people don't answer but sometimes they do!
JRC: You manage to show many movies including relatively big American productions.
AB: We have somebody begging by email: "Pleeeease send us a copy, I am sorry we have no money but our audience loves this kind of cinema pleeease..." (laughs).
JRC: How do you see the future of the Festival? More movies? More guests?
AB: We have had the experience this year of welcoming a guest and it was great for us and our public. So we would like other guests, more movies both high and low budget. This week-end we are showing Karate Kill, Creepy from Kurosawa, Assassination Graduation, The Windmill Massacre.
JRC: You even show Japanese movies now.
AB: Yes three of them and a Dutch one, all strong movies from around the world. So we want to continue like that and of course also keep on showing Argentinian and South American movies. Those are our objectives. 
JRC: I think you are very busy and need to get back to organization. Thank you very much for your time. 
AB: Thank you!