Winner Best SPORTS Feature Film 2022.
SAL, 78min., Mexico, Documentary
Directed by Paco Álvarez
Documentary feature film that narrates the life of Sal Sánchez, one of the best featherweight boxers in the world and, according to many, the best Mexican boxer in all of history. In this documentary we will see how, at his young age, he became a promise of world boxing and also his tragic death in a car accident.
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Director Biography – Paco Álvarez
Paco Álvarez is a filmmaker, writer, musician, documentarian and producer of Mexican TV and cinema.
He began his career writing for the Latin American TV network, Grupo Televisa, he participated in various broadcasts such as: Vida TV, Ritmoson Latino and others, where he wrote more than 3000 programs and produced the contents of more than 600 live programs.
In 2009, he directed, together with the Climate Institute of Washington, NASA and NOAA, a documentary on global warming, La Esfera, which was broadcast worldwide through networks such as the BBC in London and Channel 22 in Mexico.
In 2010, produced by CONACULTA, he began an investigation on the Serdán and their influence on the Mexican Revolution. The documentary Los Serdán, Secrets of a Family of Heroes premiered on November 19, 2010, 100 years after the event that gave rise to the Mexican independence struggle.
The documentary was broadcast nationally on Channel 22 and internationally by BBC London, winning various international awards such as the Honorable Mention Award at the Metropolitan Film Festival in New York and the Honorable Mention Award at the Binational Film Festival El Paso, Texas.
In 2015 he produced and directed the capture and survey of the entire country for the Council of Tourism Promotion of Mexico, the project included a crew of 400 people, divided into 8 work teams, they traveled for 4 months each corner of Mexico doing a survey of image of more than 40,000 photographs and 30 videos that offer the broadest tourist panorama of Mexico in recent years.
He is also the director of video clips, among his works in this segment are the Video Madre Tierra con Chayanne that has more than 123 million views and the Videos No Sé Llorar y Volvamos by Dulce María from his most recent record production with more than 25 million of view of both.
He has been Film Director in the most prestigious production houses in Mexico such as Garcia Bross, founded by the legendary publicist Simon Bross, with a presence in more than 15 countries in Latin America and the United States. In this house he collaborates with directors such as Juan Carlos Rulfo and Pedro Armendáriz (grandson) doing work for advertising, and documentaries, for transnational brands such as Toyota, Volkswagen, Mazda, Gilllete, and Fender.
In 2018 he directed 10 Chapters of the Muy Padres series, featured by Héctor Suárez Gomiz, Víctor González, Dulce María among others. The series was broadcast nationwide through the Imagen Tv network.
He is currently Chief Operating Officer of the production house MAZ México, where he has been generating products and successful casmpañas like the SOY for more than 9 years; starring Edith González, Ana Serradilla, Ana Claudia Talancón, Martha Higareda, Ana la Salvia, Demián Bichir, Luis Miguel, Chayanne, Ximena Navarrete among others, winning dozens of awards at international advertising festivals.
The Nuevo León Extraordinario campaign produced and directed by Paco Álvarez and with the participation as spoke person of Gael García Bernal is the most viewed tourism campaign in the world, with more than 20 million views among the pieces that make it up, surpassing campaigns of brands countries like the United States and India. This campaign was also the 4 most viewed on YouTube worldwide in 2014 and it represented the state of Nuevo León having the best tourist year in its history.
He is also the creator and executive producer of the Sun and Sound Festival music festival that was held in Guadalajara and which had more than 30 thousand attendees in a single day and of the First festival in Mexico with a line up 100% Ka`y Festival women, held in Chiapas, which joins the fight for women’s rights and against gender violence.
In 2021 he wrote and directed two important productions, the documentary Sal, which tells the story and life of one of the best boxers in the world and the best in Mexico, according to many opinions, and who tragically dies in a car accident at age 21. , being the world featherweight champion.
That same year, he wrote and directed his first feature film entitled La Danza de las libélulas, a road movie in Chiapas that shows the fragility of two young people who are about to transform their lives into something memorable. The film is in post production and is expected to be released in 2022.
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