The year is 2005. The venue is Mexico City. I am a delegate at " Tercer Seminario Internacional de Archivos Sonoros y Audiovisuales " set up by Radio Educacion, Mexico. After having finished the presentation of my paper: " Los banos audiovisuales: La digitalization de los contenidos de los archivos audiovisuales. Una
aproximacion no tecnia al asunto ", an unknown delegate approached me: Rafael Rebollar Corona. He was making documentaries, he told me. We had an interesting talk about television and movie productions and the problems of getting access to television productions. In year 2009 the venue is again Mexico City and I am a delegate at " Cuarto Seminario Internacional de Archivos Sonoros y Audiovisuales. La
salvaguarda del patrimonio sonoro y audiovisual:un reto mundial. Del 9 al 13 de noviembre de 2009. Ciudad de Mexico ". The seminar is set up by the new established
Fonoteca Nacional de Mexico. Rafael Rebollar Corona attended the seminar and it was an easy task for me to find him among all the delegates because he is not dressed like a formal businessman. No. Even if he is a film director, a former actor, a producer of historical films,you get the impression that he is one of the last bohemians of Mexico. The last representative of the Beat generation or an artist who has devoted his life to his work. We met again. We talked and we decided
to meet once more and so we did. I had a good time. He told me about how to be a film producer in Mexico and about his life moving around the world living in Paris
and USA and different cities in Mexico. He took me to an interesting bookshop called
Gandhi where I bought a lot of Mexican movies and movies made by the Swedish director
Ingmar Bergman. The films had subtitles in Spanish. A nice way of the learning the language viewing films. Rafael has been active making documentaries about historical
issues. The products have been presented at different international seminars and conferences like :" The Pan African Film & Arts Festival in USA ". He is interested
in Mexican history: The hidden and forgotten history of Mexico. The story about those
Africans who escaped from slavery in United States and made their way to Florida where they inter-married with the Seminoles ( creating the group known as Black Seminoles), made their way into Mexico and gradually integrated into that culture.
The film called: " From Florida to Coahuila - de Florida a Coahuila " was produced in 2005. Rafael is a young man - only 60 years of age but also a young man who is very spiritual and liberal in attitude to life in generally. Making videos,filming and teaching students media history and film productions. He is preoccupied with how
to archive his own productions and all of the shots not used yet in any production.
It will be a please to assist him in doing the work for him: An independant Mexican
filmmaker who told me that he is not a well-known producer in Mexico but known in USA. To those of you who want to know he better: He is on facebook where 144 friends
are on his list. I am proud of being among the few of his friends located in Europe
and the only one from Norway! Rafael is interested in music, arts,literature,travelling, and the nature itself. We have a lot in common, Amigo!
And he wants to be famous in his own country too!To listen to his experience among
artists and intellectuals who met at the old bookshop Gandhi in Mexico city is interesting - if the past and the history of the past is on your daily agenda.
Good luck with your writing, teaching, travelling and making more films about the forgotten history of Mexico: " ...to this day the deep cultural and economic impact
that Africans had in Mexico is neither accepted nor acknowledged in the official history of Mexico ..." so far statements made by Rafael Rebollar Corona about his work. I have read the programmes of different seminars where he has presented his films. In company with the famous writer and Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene who
I wrote an essay about in year 1978 for the periodical: " Syn og Segn,nr 7,1978 ", he is presenting his films and his productions. Splendid. Good luck, Rafael.
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