By Luis Felipe Rodriguez
Two years have passed since Ernesto Herrera Godínez, artistic director and founder of the International Film Festival of Guanajuato (GIFF), died on February 12, 2021, following complications from Covid-19.
Godínez was born in León, Guanajuato, on December 20, 1964. He always liked theater as a starting and ending point and began by fully learning the actor’s craft. He knew how to wait, he learned to listen to the rain, to distinguish meadows, to converse with Antigone as well as with Krapp. Yet it was assembling daring sets where he honed his mastery and earned the greatest respect. Together with friends, he founded Luna Negra Theater in 1995 an incomparable artistic laboratory of artists. Eventually he conquered Teatro Cervantes of Guanajuato.
The 20th century was not yet over when the power of Godínez’s work was already taking off. He addressed each project trying to tame excess and bring his own vision. Gunajuato’s past 30 years keep his heritage in emblems, posters, all kinds of campaigns, events, bibliographies, and extraordinary landscapes that maintain his signature. He was always a pioneer in the use of creative technologies and attentive to the avant-garde. His commendable skill is evident in politics, tourism, education, and art. He brought a great understanding to the process of capturing a key moment.
Another significant contribution of Godínez is as chief designer of the newspaper AM, recognized among the most important national publications, and the image of the government of Guanajuato. Godínez and his brother Jesus founded what would become an award-winning global advertising firm, Zona Grafica. He was also passionate about his favored soccer team. He loved photography and design, whether universal or graphic, the brazen invention of words, pantones, volumes and compositions, a select taste for coffee, antiques, and the fine artifacts of the bazaar.
GIFF, founded in 1998, first went by the name Expresión en Corto and became one of the most representative chapters in the history of cinema in Mexico. For more than two decades GIFF has brought it excellent films and has promoted the maximum potential of film creation in an inclusive and innovative way. How immense is the word love under the banner of the festival he and his wife Sarah Hoch created. Even beyond his death, the wonderful legacy of the festival continues.
Today, two years after his death, we celebrate Godinez as husband, son, and brother; also father and grandfather. But beyond family he was a relentless mentor, director, colleague, author, the friend, and finally the old man who was finally called home. Some say that it was the virus that took him, but others claim he is no longer there, only for a while. His life and work is capital, extensive, and unforgettable. This is not exactly an obituary or a farewell—it is only a way to say that Ernesto, you will never be a person who was only passing through.
