by Soco Aguilar

I spoke with Roberto Bolado, the director, writer, and producer of ;Notas de Una Vida, a breakthrough documentary film about the history of jazz in Mexico. Notas de una Vida premiered at Mexico City's National Cinematheque (Cineteca Nacional) on May 9 to a sold-out, standing-room-only audience.

Q: You've had an eclectic, prolific career as an editor, writer, and filmmaker. So, who is Roberto Bolado?
A: I've always been a sensitive human being, passionate about knowledge and art in general. Yet I'm still amazed by the countless things I like to talk about. I'm curious, an inveterate music lover—particularly of jazz—and love watching movies. Literature is another of my weaknesses.

Q: It took you 18 years from story idea to premiere to produce Notas de una Vida, the history of Mexican jazz. What was the experience like—the good, the bad, and everything else?
A: Firstly, know the project was a labor of love—and I'm slightly crazy. Starting production when I was 35, anything was possible. But 18 years later, and thanks to several other crazy friends, I completed the project. The challenges were similar to any film production—sourcing the right equipment, crew, and interviews, obtaining permissions, producing notable recordings, coordinating all related travel outside of Mexico—and then orchestrating it all.

Q: Notas de una Vida premiered at Mexico City's National Cinematheque (Cineteca Nacional) on May 9 to a sold-out, standing-room-only audience. Why should someone be excited about viewing your film?
A: It was exciting to premiere Notas de una Vida at such a historical landmark in Mexico City. And it will be equally exciting to screen the film in San Miguel de Allende. As noted, the film was made with love and a lot of passion. While the music genre originated in Black communities throughout the southern United States, it was a privilege to tell the story of its rich and vibrant history in Mexico. It's important to note that the film includes several musicians who are unknown or not well known, so it presents a unique opportunity for the audience to learn more about their experiences and their love for jazz and archive these valuable conversations in perpetuity.

Q: Who are your favorite jazz musicians?
A: Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef are two of my favorites. My list is lengthy, however, and includes Mexicans and foreign musicians, all of whom appear in the film and others who are no longer around.

Q: There are many great jazz venues in Mexico City, like Zinco, the former Bank of Mexico turned jazz club in Mexico City's Centro. What are some of your favorites?
A: You're right; there are a number of great jazz venues in Mexico City, including many that serve dinner and drinks as part of their shows. Among my favorites: the Jazzorca, Jazzatlán Capital, Parker and Lenox, Pizza Jazz, the Groove, and, of course, Zinco—although I had to push the pause button for several years while producing this film.

This interview was translated from Spanish to English and edited for clarity and brevity.

Tuesday's screening of the 90-minute film will be followed by a Q&A with the director at La Biblioteca's Teatro Santa Ana and a cocktail reception with live music at Casa Canal—Fomento Cultural Banamex.

Notas de una Vida will show in Spanish with English subtitles.

Tickets, which include the screening, Q&A, and cocktail reception, are available online or at La Biblioteca's Teatro Santa Ana box office or at the door on a first-come, first-served basis for $650 pesos (credit card) or $585 pesos (cash).

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Soco Aguilar offers a unique perspective earned from 25 years as a filmmaker and documentary television producer working from San Francisco, Mexico City, and San Miguel de Allende. She is best known for producing the animated feature, La Leyenda de la Nahuala (2007), winner of Mexico's equivalent of the Oscar, the Mexican Academy of Film's Ariel Award for Best Animated Production (the animated franchise was sold to The Walt Disney Company in 2021).

Soco has also produced the film, Todo Incluído (Universal Pictures Latin America/Focus Features, 2009), and the animated film, Nikté (Universal Pictures Latin America/Focus Features, 2009). She was associate producer for Jungle Shuffle (2014), a 3D animated feature film produced by Avikoo Studios México and Wonderland Studios South Korea.

Soco is from Mexico City, and worked in San Francisco for nine years as a documentary television producer for WGBH Boston, PBS's Frontline, BBC, Partridge Films, and Discovery, and as an award-winning producer for the documentary film, No Turning Back, a harrowing first-person account of the start of the Zapatista movement in the jungles of Chiapas. Her mentors are acclaimed documentary director Lourdes Portillo and Dr. Herbert Zettl, known for his defining desaturation theory and innovative work in applied media aesthetics.

In 2020, The New Yorker named Portillo's The Devil Never Sleeps, Soco's first major film project, as one of the top 62 films that have shaped documentary films.

Soco is also an adjunct professor at Monterrey Institute of Technology, teaching film production and animation production. She studied communications at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and earned a Bachelor of Arts in broadcast and electronic communications from San Francisco State University where she also did post-graduate studies in visual aesthetics. She is currently working on producing her most recent screenplay, If You Want to be Loved, Love, a story about a social influencer who travels back in time to 1994 to uncover the truth about her parents’ murders—a conspiracy connected to the assassination of a popular Mexican presidential candidate—and is forced to choose between two different worlds and two different lives.

www.SocoAguilar.com

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