With the purpose of humanizing through comedy, yesterday, within the framework of the 38th edition of the International Film Festival (FICG38), the premiere of the series Free to laugh, by Sofía Niño de Rivera, as well as the panel “Free to laugh. The process behind the screen.” In addition to the famous Mexican comedian and actress, Saskia Niño de Rivera, specialist in forensic psychology and founder of the non-profit association Reinserta Un Mexicano AC, and Ximena Urrutia, director of Industry and Market of the FICG, participated in the table.
Attendees became the first viewers of the first and second chapters of the series Free to laugh, titled “Tragedy + Time = Comedy” and “Amor canero,” respectively, in which stand-up comedian Sofia Niño de Rivera invites men and women deprived of their freedom to perform comedy.
Sofía commented that this is the most important project of her career “because I was finally able to use comedy to try to give her a tool of catharsis,” she declared. For her, comedy and stand-up are a way to really work on trauma, and a tool to talk about topics that no one wants to talk about.
“All projects are full of people without whom they cannot be done,” declared Sofía, and thanked a person who was fundamental for this project to exist, Jorge Bermúdez, her husband. They have been working together on this project for six years, “I am going to be eternally grateful to him for that, because he trusts my work much more than I do,” she declared with a laugh.
After the screening of the first two chapters, the conversation began between the special guests and Ximena Urrutia, who said she was happy to collaborate with such talented people.
Sofía shared that the idea for this series arose from wanting to humanize people who are deprived of their freedom. “They are normal people whose life circumstances led them to make many mistakes to be in there,” he reflected. During the production process of this series, Sofía realized that we are all one mistake away from being in a prison. With this series they seek to make visible the stigmatization and dehumanization that exists around people deprived of their liberty, “inside there are human beings who have to reintegrate into society,” declared Sofía.
The comedian also shared her feelings regarding the first premiere of the chapters of her series. “I have given birth to two children twice, this is my third,” she declared comically. He expressed that he had never felt so vulnerable in his career as on this panel, because “all my weaknesses went through my head,” he said. However, it is also “the most rewarding thing I have ever felt in my life.”
