Spain’s Málaga Film Festival Cancels Julio Hernández Cordón’s ‘The Day Is Long and Dark’

variety.com:

Anna Marie de la Fuente The #MeToo movement has claimed another casualty. Spain’s Málaga Film Festival, unspooling March 1-10, has canceled the participation of U.S.-born director Julio Hernandez Cordon’s vampire drama “The Day is Long and Dark” (“El día es largo y oscuro”) at the festival, citing “complaints regarding acts of gender violence.” In a press release issued on Feb.

28, the Spanish festival declared it had decided to withdraw the film “in order to avoid situations that may endanger the vulnerability of the affected individuals and in line with the strong commitment of this Festival against any form of violence against women and in favor of full equality of rights…” Hernandez Cordon, who resides between Mexico and Guatemala, and his Colombia-based producer, Diana Bustamante, heard about the decision in the Spanish press as the festival director’s letter to Bustamante arrived later in the afternoon in Colombia after the news had already been published in El Pais.

She fired off a letter to the festival, which states that it has said all it has had to say in its initial communiqué. In her letter to them, which Bustamante shared with Variety, she pointed out that Hernández Cordón had written to them on Feb.

13 about the incidents, where he assumed responsibility for his actions, expressed remorse and outlined his commitment to make amends. “Over the past two years, he has diligently worked to rectify behaviors that adversely affected the women who were his long-term partners at various points in their relationships.” “It is perplexing that the festival would make a decision that, while supposedly preventive, seems to inflict collective punishment on an entire team.