News: Nelson Mandela, Cannes & 'Abel'.
Popping up this week was an article from People, dated from 2008, where Diego speaks about his son (he was promoting Milk at the time). From the article: 
In Milk, Luna's character Jack Lira falls in love with Sean Penn's 1970s gay rights champion Harvey Milk. A performance his wife, Camila Sodi enjoyed, Luna tells PEOPLE.
"She laughed a lot about it," he says, adding that Camila has been spending time at home, "taking care of the baby."
From MTV Iggy was mention of Julieta Venegas appearing on the Abel soundtrack. The article spoke both about the film and Julieta Venegas’ contributions to the soundtrack.
And can Venegas please write the soundtrack to every tearjerking independent film ever? She’s made for it.
Her sweet folksy tune more than captures the essence of the movie. In typical Venegas form, “Abel” boasts folky guitar, subtle percussion, a gorgeous, nostalgic melody, and her understated, welcoming voice. The lyrics embody Abel’s longing: “Although I know that one day/you won’t return/it doesn’t interest me/I already knew that/Tell me a lie.”
Julieta Venegas Makes Beautiful Music For Diego Luna’s Film Abel, Halley
There’s also a video found at the article.
The Wrap has a few articles listed for Diego, Pro México also speaks about Mexican films conquering Cannes and the LA Times speaks about Revolución, having caught up with directors involved with the project. From the article:
For U.S. audiences, the two most recognizable names among the contributors likely will be those of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, the stars of "Y tu Mamá También" (2001) and other touchstones of Mexico's resurgent national movie industry. "Revolución" was conceived through the two actors' independent film company, Mexico City-based Canana, and spearheaded by their production partner, Pablo Cruz.
Canana is also represented in the L.A. Film Festival with three selections from Ambulante, the traveling documentary festival started by Luna and García Bernal. Last year Canana formed a partnership with LAFF to begin screening Ambulante films here. That relationship helped the festival, which is sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, to secure the U.S. premiere of "Revolución."
Over at Celestrellas, Diego’s apparently put a (animated) foot in his mouth and insulted Nelson Mandela in a video which aired during the Mexican coverage of the World Cup. In the video, he voices a Mexican ambassador called Rafita who, upon arriving in South Africa, is greeted by Nelson Mandela. Rafita calls Mandela a ‘negro’ or ‘black man’, tosses him a coin, saying ‘buy yourself something nice’ and then attempts to bribe the former President for tickets to a game. Later, he has his assistant beat him up and they land in jail.
Due to the content of the video, the director of the cartoon and Diego have come under fire. Diego
asserted that he created this political figure in response to Mexican politicians being infamous for corruption and irresponsibility.
After the stir that’s been created with the video, Diego sent this message via his Twitter*:"The idea behind Rafita is the following: a politician decides to go to the World Cup when he should really be working for the people that elected him. This character is clearly ignorant, racist, and classist, corrupt, and irresponsible. Through this character we intended to show certain aspects that worry us about our country today and its politics. We are also not saying that EVERYONE in the class of politicians are that way, but these are characteristics that we see often among those that represent us and that is what we were trying to express.
I am very aware of the response our usage of Nelson Mandela's character in order to show this has generated, but I want to clarify that you are confused if you believe we are insulting ex-president Mandela. In any case we are suggesting through Rafita that among the Mexican political class there are many individuals who would be as ignorant to commit the same mistake Rafita makes. One morning in Mexico we woke up with our president having said that: "Mexicans do the work that not even Black people want to do..." The day I read that I was infuriated for a long time. I based my capsule exactly on these accounts. I want to make clear that we are not celebrating this nor do we feel proud about these realities, but we are criticizing it.
In no shape or form are we ignoring the fact that Mandela is a very important figure for the South African people and a figure of social justice and racial equality all over the world. We had no interest in making fun of a man who endured what he has during the racist regime of the apartheid, in fact we hope that the irony makes clear our own posture, something that obviously has not been noticed by some. We greatly admire Mandela, his story is without a doubt one that inspires us to move ahead in a world filled with so much inequality where so many are the cases of injustice and intolerance. But the capsule doesn't pretend to teach in this sense, nor disseminate the work of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, what we have done is a satire and critique of ourselves, with this fiction we attempted to touch on themes that don't make us at all proud of the country that we live in and we believe that comedy is the best vehicle for this type of reflection.
Seeing it clearly, it was an error to utilize the figure of Mandela in order to make this commentary. I want to apologize with those who have found the first few capsules offensive and irritating and say that the ex-president no longer appears in the series.
The series will continue talking about many futbol, political, and social themes that concern us and I hope that I can gain your reconciliation soon."
* _diegoluna does not know, for certain, that this is Diego’s real Tweitter account.
In Milk, Luna's character Jack Lira falls in love with Sean Penn's 1970s gay rights champion Harvey Milk. A performance his wife, Camila Sodi enjoyed, Luna tells PEOPLE.
"She laughed a lot about it," he says, adding that Camila has been spending time at home, "taking care of the baby."
From MTV Iggy was mention of Julieta Venegas appearing on the Abel soundtrack. The article spoke both about the film and Julieta Venegas’ contributions to the soundtrack.
And can Venegas please write the soundtrack to every tearjerking independent film ever? She’s made for it.
Her sweet folksy tune more than captures the essence of the movie. In typical Venegas form, “Abel” boasts folky guitar, subtle percussion, a gorgeous, nostalgic melody, and her understated, welcoming voice. The lyrics embody Abel’s longing: “Although I know that one day/you won’t return/it doesn’t interest me/I already knew that/Tell me a lie.”
Julieta Venegas Makes Beautiful Music For Diego Luna’s Film Abel, Halley
There’s also a video found at the article.
The Wrap has a few articles listed for Diego, Pro México also speaks about Mexican films conquering Cannes and the LA Times speaks about Revolución, having caught up with directors involved with the project. From the article:
For U.S. audiences, the two most recognizable names among the contributors likely will be those of Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, the stars of "Y tu Mamá También" (2001) and other touchstones of Mexico's resurgent national movie industry. "Revolución" was conceived through the two actors' independent film company, Mexico City-based Canana, and spearheaded by their production partner, Pablo Cruz.
Canana is also represented in the L.A. Film Festival with three selections from Ambulante, the traveling documentary festival started by Luna and García Bernal. Last year Canana formed a partnership with LAFF to begin screening Ambulante films here. That relationship helped the festival, which is sponsored by the Los Angeles Times, to secure the U.S. premiere of "Revolución."
Over at Celestrellas, Diego’s apparently put a (animated) foot in his mouth and insulted Nelson Mandela in a video which aired during the Mexican coverage of the World Cup. In the video, he voices a Mexican ambassador called Rafita who, upon arriving in South Africa, is greeted by Nelson Mandela. Rafita calls Mandela a ‘negro’ or ‘black man’, tosses him a coin, saying ‘buy yourself something nice’ and then attempts to bribe the former President for tickets to a game. Later, he has his assistant beat him up and they land in jail.
Due to the content of the video, the director of the cartoon and Diego have come under fire. Diego
asserted that he created this political figure in response to Mexican politicians being infamous for corruption and irresponsibility.
After the stir that’s been created with the video, Diego sent this message via his Twitter*:"The idea behind Rafita is the following: a politician decides to go to the World Cup when he should really be working for the people that elected him. This character is clearly ignorant, racist, and classist, corrupt, and irresponsible. Through this character we intended to show certain aspects that worry us about our country today and its politics. We are also not saying that EVERYONE in the class of politicians are that way, but these are characteristics that we see often among those that represent us and that is what we were trying to express.
I am very aware of the response our usage of Nelson Mandela's character in order to show this has generated, but I want to clarify that you are confused if you believe we are insulting ex-president Mandela. In any case we are suggesting through Rafita that among the Mexican political class there are many individuals who would be as ignorant to commit the same mistake Rafita makes. One morning in Mexico we woke up with our president having said that: "Mexicans do the work that not even Black people want to do..." The day I read that I was infuriated for a long time. I based my capsule exactly on these accounts. I want to make clear that we are not celebrating this nor do we feel proud about these realities, but we are criticizing it.
In no shape or form are we ignoring the fact that Mandela is a very important figure for the South African people and a figure of social justice and racial equality all over the world. We had no interest in making fun of a man who endured what he has during the racist regime of the apartheid, in fact we hope that the irony makes clear our own posture, something that obviously has not been noticed by some. We greatly admire Mandela, his story is without a doubt one that inspires us to move ahead in a world filled with so much inequality where so many are the cases of injustice and intolerance. But the capsule doesn't pretend to teach in this sense, nor disseminate the work of the Nobel Peace Prize winner, what we have done is a satire and critique of ourselves, with this fiction we attempted to touch on themes that don't make us at all proud of the country that we live in and we believe that comedy is the best vehicle for this type of reflection.
Seeing it clearly, it was an error to utilize the figure of Mandela in order to make this commentary. I want to apologize with those who have found the first few capsules offensive and irritating and say that the ex-president no longer appears in the series.
The series will continue talking about many futbol, political, and social themes that concern us and I hope that I can gain your reconciliation soon."
* _diegoluna does not know, for certain, that this is Diego’s real Tweitter account.