The state of Guanajuato is taking steps to complete the transformation of Mineral de Pozos from a ghost town into a movie-making mecca.
Guanajuato’s Tourism Ministry is teaming up with the state’s public media agency to build state-of-the-art audiovisual production studios in the former ghost town.
🎬 Guanajuato lanza TV4 Cine y Series ✨ con nuevos estudios audiovisuales en Mineral de Pozos, un proyecto que impulsará el desarrollo local y atraerá talento global 🌍 🎥#LoViEnTV4 pic.twitter.com/Osuvh3e0JA
— TV4 📺📱💻 (@tv4guanajuato) September 5, 2024
According to the newspaper El Economista, the studios are being designed with the aim of stoking the region’s economy, generating new employment and promoting the city’s thriving cultural tourism sector.
Once a bustling mining town, Mineral de Pozos suffered near desolation as a result of the 1910-1920 Mexican Revolution. Since being declared a Pueblo Mágico in 2012, however, San Pedro de los Pozos (the municipality within which Mineral de Pozos is located) has enjoyed a cultural renaissance.
With a population of no more than 3,000 residents, Mineral de Pozos boasts numerous can’t-miss historical sites while also playing host to the International Mariachi Festival, an International Blues Festival and the Pozos International Independent Film Festival.
The film festival’s stated goal is to promote new talent in the face of challenges in accessing commercial cinema. Held each October, the festival provides an open platform for filmmakers to present a variety of works, with no restrictions on the length or number of submissions, attracting cinema enthusiasts from around the world.
According to the newspaper El Sol de León, the studios will be built on a 3-hectare plot of land donated to the state public media agency by Mineral de Pozos resident Ignacio Soto Borja.
“I feel very proud. My family is guanajuatense. I believe in the vision expressed by the state government and [state public television network] TV4,” Soto Borja told El Sol de León. “The important thing is the people who can learn to work and support the future growth of the state.”
With its own production studios, Guanajuato hopes to attract filmmaking ventures with the help of its public television network, TV4. The network has fashioned an alliance with the audiovisual department of Spain’s University of Valencia.
“We are looking to cultivate and nourish local talent as well as draw in professional [filmmakers] from Mexico and around the world,” said Juan Aguilera Cid, director of TV4. “But we don’t just want to be a production center, we are eager to play a role in improving the conditions of the industry.”
TV4 is also preparing to establish a training ground that will include landscapes that have featured in more than 50 movies and television series.
Aguilera Cid told El Economista that the network and the state already have seed money of between 20 million and 30 million pesos to build the infrastructure and acquire the technology needed to establish the school.
With reports from El Sol de León and El Economista
