“Mexicanas in Film”
One of Mexico’s leading entertainment and lifestyle magazines publishes "Mexicanas in Film," (March 2022, Christian Nodal on the cover), a story about the evolution of the Mexican film industry. The feature highlights Soco and three other Mexicana filmmakers, including Mexico’s most successful woman director, Maria Novaro, who also directs Mexico’s Institute of Cinematography; Tita Lombardo, producer of Babel and Amores Perros; and, Lila Avilés, director of the award-winning film, The Chambermaid.
"Loved, Love"
During the pandemic, I take "No te Enredes en mis Redes" in a different direction, collaborating with a writing partner, Brett Holmes. "If You Want to be Loved, Love" is written as a long-form treatment in English, adapted for a wider audience. The storyline includes elements of historical fiction and a dynamic cross-border narrative that reflects this new direction. I am in the process of shopping the script to the right production partner.
Call me Professor, again
As an adjunct professor, I teach film production, animation production, and screenwriting, again, at Monterrey Institute of Technology. I recruit a number of my friends as guest lecturers, including Mauricio Duran, Universal Pictures Latin America's SVP from 2007-2021, film score composer Leoncio Lara Bon, Oscar winner Jaime Baksht (Best Sound, "Sound of Metal" 2021), and Simon Bross, arguably Mexico's most awarded commercial director.
Everything happens for a reason
I reemerge to write and develop the screenplay, "No te Enredes en mis Redes." I fully develop and attach a well-known cast. Renowned Mexican rom-com director Pitipol Ybarra agrees to direct. Production for the film is slated for April 2020, colliding with this weird virus called Covid-19. My project comes to a screeching halt.
“Fiction Turned Into Reality”
Harper's Bazaar en Español magazine (March 2010 issue with Kate Moss on the cover) publishes "Fiction Turned Into Reality," a story about my making of a major animated full-length feature in Mexico and my point of view about the film industry's path forward in Mexico. Soon after this story, and after a 5-year separation (I moved out), I’m served with a demand for divorce (he’s an attorney) which leads to an acrimonious “fade to black” for more than six years.
Nikté—Universal Pictures
I produce the animated film, “Nikté,” an animated comedy about a pretentious little girl visiting “La Venta” museum in Tabasco with her family. She is transferred back in time to the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization where she learns to value her family and the importance of being humble. Universal Pictures and Focus Features distribute the film in November 2009. Jaime Baksht and Michelle Couttolenc of AstroEstudio LX design Nikté’s sound. In 2021, the couple wins the Oscar for best sound design for “Sound of Metal.”
Professor Aguilar
One of the top-ranked universities in Latin America, Monterrey Institute of Technology, recruits me as an adjunct professor. My film production class is scheduled at 7:00 am so that I can keep my daily schedule at my production office in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. 14-hour days and single-parent-dom.
Todo Incluído–Universal Pictures
I associate produce my first major live-action feature, “Todo Incluído.” The film stars Martha Higareda, Ana Serradilla, Maya Zapata, Jaime Camil, Jesús Ochoa, and Jesús Zavala, and is distributed by Universal Pictures. The film wins a number of awards for its innovative advertising campaign.
And the winner is, “La Leyenda de la Nahuala”
I’m best known for producing and casting the animated feature, “La Leyenda de la Nahuala,” winner of Mexico’s equivalent of the Oscar, the Mexican Academy of Film’s Ariel Award, for Best Animated Production. (As an aside, this film was the original and most popular of the animated franchise sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2021.)
“Romantico”
I serve as production coordinator in Mexico for a film directed by my friend Mark Becker and funded in part by the Sundance Institute. The story is about Carmelo, an illegal Mexican immigrant living in San Francisco as a troubadour, returning home to care of his ailing mother. ”Romantico” receives critical acclaim from news organizations ranging from The New York Times to LA Weekly.
My Best Production Ever
Although single parenting affords extreme joy, attempting to do it 'right' comes with great responsibilities and bandwidth challenges. Thus for about six years, I stepped off the train to focus on my kids. My twins Pedro and Pablo and my warrior princess Amalia are now college students in Mexico City studying film, business, and aerospace engineering, respectively.
“Blossoms of Fire” by Maureen Gosling
Along with Werner Herzog, Natalia Toledo, and others, I serve as narrator in a film about the indigenous women of Juchitán de Zaragoza, a city in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, as "guardians of men, distributors of food," celebrated internationally for their beauty, intelligence, power, and undeniable influence.
“The Human Animal”
An unforgettable experience: I’m invited by Nicole Newnham to engage in the world-renowned documentary television series written by Desmond Morris and produced by BBC, Discovery, and Partridge Films. I’m tasked to fix stories and interviews in the La Sierra Tarahumara mountains, Juchitán (Oaxaca), and Mexico City. (A side note: Nicole’s doc film, “Crip Camp,” is nominated for an Oscar in 2021.)
The Bay Area Video Coalition
Lucky me. I was selected to teach weekend workshops at the Bay Area Video Coalition, a popular San Francisco community hub and resource for filmmakers, serving 7,500 freelancers, filmmakers, storytellers, activists, and artists ranging from age 15 to 80. I teach offline editing and video production.
The fall of a project
Director and producer Lourdes Portillo invites me to serve as associate producer for Frontline’s PBS political documentary "The Rise and Fall of Carlos Salinas." Carlos Salinas served as the president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. After working on production for more than a year, Lourdes and I have all of our edited and unedited footage confiscated from our offices in San Francisco. The documentary was never completed.
“Sometimes My Feet Go Numb”
Director Lourdes Portillo invites me to help produce “Sometimes My Feet Go Numb,” a video art vignette based on a poem by Wayne Corbitt, an individual undergoing drug treatments for HIV and the quality of his medical care.
“The Devil Never Sleeps”
I get my first major film project, working with director Lourdes Portillo on “The Devil Never Sleeps.” In 2020, The New Yorker names "The Devil Never Sleeps" as one of the top films that shaped documentary films. In addition, in 2021, the U.S. Library of Congress selects the film as one of 25 that year to preserve in perpetuity for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The Jungles of Chiapas v2
I cover the Zapatista crisis from January-March 1994, including Subcomandante Marcos' first news conference. And, yes, my story includes being detained, sleeping on floors, and other shenanigans. My professor, John Hewitt, sets me up with an off-line editing suite at my apartment and then I receive grants for post-production from the Film Arts Foundation and Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy.
The Jungles of Chiapas v1
I produce (direct, write, shoot, and edit) my first documentary, "No Turning Back," a harrowing first-person account about the start of the Zapatista uprising in the jungles of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Initially, I travel to Mexico City to cover protest marches related to the North American Free Trade Agreement. However, after an interview with actress Ofelia Medina (co-founder of the Trust for the Health of Indigenous Children of Mexico), I hop a plane with my oversized Hi8 camera for the jungles of Chiapas.
The Beatnik Cafe
Every generation of revolutionary writers has a time-worn cafe. For San Francisco, the cradle of the "Beat Generation" was Caffe Trieste. Three of my classmates and I write, produce, and direct the documentary film "Caffe Trieste: Nostalgia Dei Sensi," a look at the West Coast's first espresso house. The four of us continue to be friends, working in film from Mexico, France, Italy, and Germany, respectively.
California dreamin’
Having learned the importance of story and the written word, I yearn for more, particularly about creating compelling images. At San Francisco State University, I meet my mentor, Dr. Herbert Zettl, known for his defining desaturation theory. But it comes with a price. Although I'm from a family of means (my grandfather was chief justice of Mexico's supreme court and my father a successful entrepreneur), I'm effectively cut off for pursuing filmmaking rather than law. I soon take my first waitressing job.
If you don’t tell your stories
Guillermo Arriaga's communication theory class is one of my highlights as a student at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. The course augments my love of reading, and I discover books that will mark me for life. One of his classic lines: "If you don't tell your stories, they will stay in your throat, they will rust, and they will poison you."
It’s a big world out there
As a junior in high school and an exchange student, I attend Westtown School, a boarding school in the Philadelphia area. It's here that I discover that it’s a big world out there, developing an “all things are possible” attitude, and understanding that it’s possible to choose to make stories with moving images for the rest of my life.
Universal Pictures, take one
At age 11, my family and I visit Universal Pictures and their studio tour in Los Angeles. My dad buys me a t-shirt packaged inside a 35mm film tin. I promise myself that I will make a film with the Universal logo someday. And, so it happened 32 years later—twice.
Lights, camera, life
At age 2, I pretend to shoot a scene—holding a Super 8mm camera—with my love for images apparent and even more so for music. There’s no doubt that I listened to the awake and melancholy chords of the Beatle's "Eleanor Rigby" while in my mother's womb. Columbia Pictures releases "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Indira Gandhi becomes the Indian prime minister. And snowflakes fall in Mexico City.
“Mexicanas in Film”
One of Mexico’s leading entertainment and lifestyle magazines publishes "Mexicanas in Film," (March 2022, Christian Nodal on the cover), a story about the evolution of the Mexican film industry. The feature highlights Soco and three other Mexicana filmmakers, including Mexico’s most successful woman director, Maria Novaro, who also directs Mexico’s Institute of Cinematography; Tita Lombardo, producer of Babel and Amores Perros; and, Lila Avilés, director of the award-winning film, The Chambermaid.
"Loved, Love"
Collaborating with my writing partner, Brett Holmes, Loved, Love's high concept script is written in English (75%) and Spanish to appeal to a cross-border audience. The storyline is set against a backdrop of political intrigue, combining elements of drama, mystery, and romance coupled with time travel and historical fiction—exploring one woman’s search for truth and purpose. We are shopping the project to the right co-production partner.
Everything happens for a reason
I reemerge to write and develop the screenplay, "No te Enredes en mis Redes." I fully develop and attach a well-known cast. Renowned Mexican rom-com director Pitipol Ybarra agrees to direct. Production for the film is slated for April 2020, colliding with this weird virus called Covid-19. My project comes to a screeching halt.
Call me Professor, again
As an adjunct professor, I teach film production, animation production, and screenwriting, again, at Monterrey Institute of Technology. I recruit a number of my friends as guest lecturers, including Mauricio Duran, Universal Pictures Latin America's SVP from 2007-2021, film score composer Leoncio Lara Bon, Oscar winner Jaime Baksht (Best Sound, "Sound of Metal" 2021), and Simon Bross, arguably Mexico's most awarded commercial director.
“Fiction Turned Into Reality”
Harper's Bazaar en Español magazine (March 2010 issue with Kate Moss on the cover) publishes "Fiction Turned Into Reality," a story about my making of a major animated full-length feature in Mexico and my point of view about the film industry's path forward in Mexico. Soon after this story, and after a 5-year separation (I moved out), I’m served with a demand for divorce (he’s an attorney) which leads to an acrimonious “fade to black” for more than six years.
Nikté—Universal Pictures
I produce the animated film, “Nikté,” an animated comedy about a pretentious little girl visiting “La Venta” museum in Tabasco with her family. She is transferred back in time to the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization where she learns to value her family and the importance of being humble. Universal Pictures and Focus Features distribute the film in November 2009. Jaime Baksht and Michelle Couttolenc of AstroEstudio LX design Nikté’s sound. In 2021, the couple wins the Oscar for best sound design for “Sound of Metal.”
Professor Aguilar
One of the top-ranked universities in Latin America, Monterrey Institute of Technology, recruits me as an adjunct professor. My film production class is scheduled at 7:00 am so that I can keep my daily schedule at my production office in the Roma neighborhood of Mexico City. 14-hour days and single-parent-dom.
Todo Incluído–Universal Pictures
I associate produce my first major live-action feature, “Todo Incluído.” The film stars Martha Higareda, Ana Serradilla, Maya Zapata, Jaime Camil, Jesús Ochoa, and Jesús Zavala, and is distributed by Universal Pictures. The film wins a number of awards for its innovative advertising campaign.
And the winner is, “La Leyenda de la Nahuala”
I’m best known for producing and casting the animated feature, “La Leyenda de la Nahuala,” winner of Mexico’s equivalent of the Oscar, the Mexican Academy of Film’s Ariel Award, for Best Animated Production. (As an aside, this film was the original and most popular of the animated franchise sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2021.)
“Romantico”
I serve as production coordinator in Mexico for a film directed by my friend Mark Becker and funded in part by the Sundance Institute. The story is about Carmelo, an illegal Mexican immigrant living in San Francisco as a troubadour, returning home to care of his ailing mother. ”Romantico” receives critical acclaim from news organizations ranging from The New York Times to LA Weekly.
My Best Production Ever
Although single parenting affords extreme joy, attempting to do it 'right' comes with great responsibilities and bandwidth challenges. Thus for about six years, I stepped off the train to focus on my kids. My twins Pedro and Pablo and my warrior princess Amalia are now college students in Mexico City studying film, business, and aerospace engineering, respectively.
“Blossoms of Fire” by Maureen Gosling
Along with Werner Herzog, Natalia Toledo, and others, I serve as narrator in a film about the indigenous women of Juchitán de Zaragoza, a city in the Mexican state of Oaxaca, as "guardians of men, distributors of food," celebrated internationally for their beauty, intelligence, power, and undeniable influence.
“The Human Animal”
An unforgettable experience: I’m invited by Nicole Newnham to engage in the world-renowned documentary television series written by Desmond Morris and produced by BBC, Discovery, and Partridge Films. I’m tasked to fix stories and interviews in the La Sierra Tarahumara mountains, Juchitán (Oaxaca), and Mexico City. (A side note: Nicole’s doc film, “Crip Camp,” is nominated for an Oscar in 2021.)
The Bay Area Video Coalition
Lucky me. I was selected to teach weekend workshops at the Bay Area Video Coalition, a popular San Francisco community hub and resource for filmmakers, serving 7,500 freelancers, filmmakers, storytellers, activists, and artists ranging from age 15 to 80. I teach offline editing and video production.
The fall of a project
Director and producer Lourdes Portillo invites me to serve as associate producer for Frontline’s PBS political documentary "The Rise and Fall of Carlos Salinas." Carlos Salinas served as the president of Mexico from 1988 to 1994. After working on production for more than a year, Lourdes and I have all of our edited and unedited footage confiscated from our offices in San Francisco. The documentary was never completed.
“Sometimes My Feet Go Numb”
Director Lourdes Portillo invites me to help produce “Sometimes My Feet Go Numb,” a video art vignette based on a poem by Wayne Corbitt, an individual undergoing drug treatments for HIV and the quality of his medical care.
“The Devil Never Sleeps”
I get my first major film project, working with director Lourdes Portillo on “The Devil Never Sleeps.” In 2020, The New Yorker names "The Devil Never Sleeps" as one of the top films that shaped documentary films. In addition, in 2021, the U.S. Library of Congress selects the film as one of 25 that year to preserve in perpetuity for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."
The Jungles of Chiapas v2
I cover the Zapatista crisis from January-March 1994, including Subcomandante Marcos' first news conference. And, yes, my story includes being detained, sleeping on floors, and other shenanigans. My professor, John Hewitt, sets me up with an off-line editing suite at my apartment and then I receive grants for post-production from the Film Arts Foundation and Cesar Chavez Institute for Public Policy.
The Jungles of Chiapas v1
I produce (direct, write, shoot, and edit) my first documentary, "No Turning Back," a harrowing first-person account about the start of the Zapatista uprising in the jungles of the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Initially, I travel to Mexico City to cover protest marches related to the North American Free Trade Agreement. However, after an interview with actress Ofelia Medina (co-founder of the Trust for the Health of Indigenous Children of Mexico), I hop a plane with my oversized Hi8 camera for the jungles of Chiapas.
The Beatnik Cafe
Every generation of revolutionary writers has a time-worn cafe. For San Francisco, the cradle of the "Beat Generation" was Caffe Trieste. Three of my classmates and I write, produce, and direct the documentary film "Caffe Trieste: Nostalgia Dei Sensi," a look at the West Coast's first espresso house. The four of us continue to be friends, working in film from Mexico, France, Italy, and Germany, respectively.
California dreamin’
Having learned the importance of story and the written word, I yearn for more, particularly about creating compelling images. At San Francisco State University, I meet my mentor, Dr. Herbert Zettl, known for his defining desaturation theory. But it comes with a price. Although I'm from a family of means (my grandfather was chief justice of Mexico's supreme court and my father a successful entrepreneur), I'm effectively cut off for pursuing filmmaking rather than law. I soon take my first waitressing job.
If you don’t tell your stories
Guillermo Arriaga's communication theory class is one of my highlights as a student at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. The course augments my love of reading, and I discover books that will mark me for life. One of his classic lines: "If you don't tell your stories, they will stay in your throat, they will rust, and they will poison you."
It’s a big world out there
As a junior in high school and an exchange student, I attend Westtown School, a boarding school in the Philadelphia area. It's here that I discover that it’s a big world out there, developing an “all things are possible” attitude, and understanding that it’s possible to choose to make stories with moving images for the rest of my life.
Universal Pictures, take one
At age 11, my family and I visit Universal Pictures and their studio tour in Los Angeles. My dad buys me a t-shirt packaged inside a 35mm film tin. I promise myself that I will make a film with the Universal logo someday. And, so it happened 32 years later—twice.
Lights, camera, life
At age 2, I pretend to shoot a scene—holding a Super 8mm camera—with my love for images apparent and even more so for music. There’s no doubt that I listened to the awake and melancholy chords of the Beatle's "Eleanor Rigby" while in my mother's womb. Columbia Pictures releases "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner." Indira Gandhi becomes the Indian prime minister. And snowflakes fall in Mexico City.