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THE PHANTOM PAIN - still #1

THE PHANTOM PAIN

(El dolor fantasma)
US Premiere

Director: José Pablo Escamilla González Aragón

Mexico, 2012, 18 min

Shooting Format:HDV

Festival Year:2013

Category:Narrative Short

Cast:Cynthia Aspra, Carlos Ceja, Ismael Villar Bragdon

Crew:Executive Producers: José Pablo Escamilla González Aragón, Cynthia Aspra Cruz, Manuel Escamilla Meillón - Producers: Rosa Galguera Ortega - Screenwriters: José Pablo Escamilla González Aragón - Cinematographer: Xavi José Cunilleras - Editor: Axel Muñoz Espino

Email:pablo_1080@hotmail.com

Web:www.eldolorfantasma.com

Synopsis

Cynthia, a therapist for the limb-impaired, receives a phone call with news that her brother has unexpectedly passed away. She will be forced to face the emptiness of the objects that until recently belonged to him. Through this inevitable quest, she will find the path of her mourning process.

Trailer

About the director

José Pablo Escamilla González Aragón completed film studies in CENTRO. He parts from idea that the cinematographic experience has to do with the drive we as humans have to know the lives and stories of others, this way we learn through strangers experiences. This is why his films are extremely intimate. The short film for his thesis, "Ask and you shall receive" was presented in the Cineteca Nacional de la ciudad de Mexico, under the series of shorts called "The films that are coming". He's developed some personal projects, always exploring the process of mourning and death. Some of these, "Bola","Smiling and laughing" and "Sexo" have been presented in the art gallery, Galeria Tal Cual, in the Kinoki festival, and the International Festival of Toluca. José has worked in many advertisement projects and was recently selected to participate in the Talent Campus Guadalajara 2013.

Filmography

Filmmaker's note

A couple of days after Andres’ passing, his mother invited us to his house to give us away his belongings. It was perhaps one of the most difficult moments in our mourning process: going into the bedroom of someone that had left one morning believing he would return in the afternoon, and as such, I had the impression each object he had used every single day until then, somehow still remained active, awaiting the function Andres was supposed to keep on giving them. Somehow, having some of his stuff helped me. I encountered Andrés in his absence, in the void he left. The Phantom pain is the physical reaction of the body when faced to a loss. The brain neurons keep ordering the extremity, and when they don’t receive any answer, they project pain. It’s a paradox, because something that isn't there hurts. This is a small tribute to one of the greatest persons I ever met.

Notes

Director José Pablo Escamilla González Aragón and Producer Cynthia Aspra will be available for a Q&A after the screening.

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