Tribute to Pericles Mejia
Pericles was always ready for anything and was always Pericles. A truly endearing character who was capable of assuming various roles: actor, director, producer, scriptwriter, editor, even an extra or assistant in whatever. In the end, the result is all cinema. It is not surprising if when he was young he was a rocker, a globetrotter, an entrepreneur, a fighter against impossible obstacles, a seducer, in love with life but a smoker and above all overflowing with positivity. He had a special gift, which he had no need to specify. Human, with errors and defects. Pericles Mejia (PM for those who understand me) always triumphed. He was not afraid to take on challenges. Beyond Good and Evil. He always knew that he was going to be liked or maybe not. Nothing matters. The indomitable spirit to handle the most difficult situations, with a smile and that special air of good humor or perhaps Periclesmania, I know. Explorer of cultures, willing to take on challenges, dressed as a Chinese, in a chacabana, tuxedo or polo shirt, or perhaps with an extraterrestrial appearance, imbued with warmth and closeness, with good jokes and some bad ones. Always present in the movie theater that fed his soul, with a decipherable face or I wasn't. An authentic being, with the innocence of a child and the mischief of experience.
Any day he was dressed in a Chinese tangzhuang, or with glasses that turned him into Balaguer (Like it or not. No one could do better behind the camera with coffins directing a French actress under the Caribbean sun (Yes, he talked a lot about his essence). That was Pericles, my Pericles, our Pericles. Yes, because cinema was not an invention of the Americans but of the French. Or perhaps better with a cassock conscious of a confinement that has nothing to do with Buñuel, or taking us back to the age of twelve and Abel's crime either behind the Moviola or on the other side of the camera, deciding whether to cut Angel Muniz or perhaps Angel Hache (Never Maria Castillo who is a prima donna of the theater and great. Very great Always surrounded by angels in life and the occasional demon or thinking about Cinematheques from the Kischner or the National or Dominican, whatever you want to call it... What times those were... From Agliberto to Cuchi. At the Silvano and Narpier festival, the Exhibition from Arturo, the Global or the new push of Fine Arts with Zumatron gasoline. With the guys from the UASD and then the others. Always willing to contribute and always pursuing utopias of art and cinema in particular. Sounding and sowing cinema. Ugh the cinema. Will it be better than life?
Sometimes with Coppola or Friedkin. He didn't even dislike Pacino. In that he resembled Claudio Chea. With delirium for Isabelle Huppert, Deneuve or paying homage to Jean Louis and Latin American talent. Suddenly in Cannes, bandaged by a fall on the way, supporting Don Elis or Yvette, but enjoying a little lamb and ready to watch movies and enjoy the evening... Or much better, let's go back... in love with a special French girl. Yes, the same one who taught French classes, Madame Mejia or the Anne who remembered a Godard diva, who has left us the fruits of her. Who doesn't love Marco said no to his invitation to the Irish Pub? Or the son who emigrated but we always found again or the daughter whose loss I have forever stuck in his heart. She was Truffaut and Varda alike. Of exquisite tastes and receptive to those less fortunate in talent. The elder Pericles, co-worker, friend in the best of times and the most difficult, the one who traveled around the Globe and arrived from Europe to the East, the one we never saw on stage in his rockambolesque show with Milton Pelaez (if Believe me, that happened a little back). A delirium just to imagine it. There are so many facets that we will never understand his ability to unfold, teleport from one place to another, to always be present and, above all, always close.
The conviction remains that he was a being from another world, absolutely exorbitant and extraordinary, out of place but in the right place. In good times and bad, for better or for worse. He is definitely part of the pioneers and close to the new generations. Of those who nurtured a celluloid dream when nothing was in sight and of those who fortunately today see the possibilities (No... Earning money was not his thing. It was his passion for his job). The one who welcomed you with his sympathy in the Cinematheque where you always knew he was there, presented, received everyone with a hug, because he was always the face, because he really knew how to be there, be part of it and support you. The one who was alongside the young talents like those who came before. Something weird. The transcendent, ancestral, unusual, special being, the father that the new generation will miss and that those who come will have to remember, if the networks allow it... I have never watched movies on a cell phone. Be luminous and exceptional. Your humor and your love for cinema will never die out. Shine like the star you were, without the false air of popularity, without posturing or conscious of your stardom..
You don't come from that time that those of us who are currently survivors will have to face... It is and always will be you. El Peri or Don Pero, it doesn't matter. Thanks for everything. All of us who shared with you will forever miss you. A thousand stars on the Boulevard of Infinity will never be enough. Pericles Mejia …From here, Nothingness as you understood it, we hope love and gratitude reaches wherever you may be.
