By Carola Rico
After seeing the re-release of the movie “Shadow of the Pepper Tree” at the facilities at the beach of Valle de los Senderos, I became interested in interviewing Francesca Fisher, the director. This feature film is a forerunner of film productions in San Miguel de Allende.
In an exclusive interview with Atencion, Fisher told us that she came to San Miguel in the 1990s. At that time, she had already had an interesting career in film, with documentaries, commercials, videos, and television series. Her first feature film was made in our heritage city. The film, “Shadow of the Pepper Tree,” came out in 1996, and was released again year in April, with the main actors in attendance.
The film is set in Mexico in 1968 and tells the story of Luna, whose mother is a shaman but will not allow Luna to learn her arts. Luna becomes angry with her mother, leaves the house, and goes to live in an abandoned house instead. She begins to offer cures to the villagers, and then meets Terence, a gringo artist. They begin a love relationship that results in a pregnancy. Luna finds out that her lover has wedding plans with a flamenco dancer, so she resorts to black magic to stop it.
This production was co-directed with Taggart Siegel. The music was by Willie & Lobo; the special effects by Daniel Cordera and José Lim; the production design was the work of Daniel Girdely; and it was produced by Quetzal Films. Fisher wrote the story and had already completed several projects on esoteric matters and shamanism which have always interested her. For this film, Fisher said that she sought collaborations with New Zealand, the country where she is from.
After the filming, Fisher decided to support other producers and directors. Because of the many requests to find locations, they approached the Offices of Tourism of the State of Guanajuato. With their support, they set up the first state film commission through their company Quetzal Producciones—and this is how they ended up with the location of San Miguel. Aside from this, Fisher continued with other creative projects, and it was then that she came up with the idea of holding the first film festival in San Miguel. The premiere was her film, “Shadow of the Pepper Tree.”
The Quetzal Production House lasted approximately eight years and worked for Disney, HBO, MTV, and many important companies. They also continued making their own productions of shorts, medium-length films, and documentaries. Fisher is a great promoter of locations in and around San Miguel. She visited the Cannes Film Festival, showing locations in Guanajuato through a story-like film production. She used landscapes of San Miguel in black and white, which according to what she tells us, garnered the attention of international filmmakers for productions of new films in this city.
Fisher explained that the Valle de los Senderos location, initially acquired for his production house, began in 2005. They worked with the most renowned architects in the world to develop the plan and committed over 60 million dollars. However, the global economy fell in 2009, and they had to abandon the project because all the funding was gone. But they did keep the land.
Today, according to Fisher, Valle de los Senderos makes her feel like she is living inside a movie. As a filmmaker she loves to create stories, environments, and manipulate emotions in positive ways, to create suspense, comedy, or promote thinking. At present she is applying for a new project because she says she has never given up on her love for the cinema.
Fisher announced that a major film-related project is coming soon to San Miguel. This project will incorporate film and theater. It is intended as a permanent showcase for our heritage city. According to Fisher, it will also include training and education for filmmakers. Her hope is that Mayor Mauricio Trejo will support this initiative, which she is certain will help with employment for the creative people of San Miguel. It will also promote cultural tourism and will be part of a social program that will help with the prevention of delinquency—thus bringing about increased safety.
