Jomí García Ascot

Jomí García Ascot (24 March 1927 – 14 August 1986) was a poet, essayist, filmmaker, director and educator. Born in Tunisia, he was a Spanish exile who lived in Mexico.

Biography José Miguel García Ascot was born on 24 March 1927 in Tunis, Tunisia. The son of a Spanish diplomat, he spent his childhood traveling from Portugal to France to Belgium and Morocco.

Fleeing the Spanish Civil War with his parents, he arrived in Mexico in 1939 as an exile. García studied philosophy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where in 1949, he founded the University Film Club and earned a Master's in 1951. He also co-founded La Revista Presencia (Presence Magazine), where he began publishing poetry and film critiques.

García collaborated with many publications, including Las Españas (The Spanish), a publication of exiles; the Boletín de la Unión de Intelectuales Españoles/México (Bulletin of the Union of Intellectuals Spanish / Mexico); México en la Cultura (Culture in Mexico); La Gaceta del Fondo de Cultura Economica (The Gazette of the Foundation of Economic Culture); (Journal of the University of Mexico); and Prometeo (Prometheus). He was the director of the film magazine Cine Verdad, Telerevista y Cámara.

Film career Between 1953 and 1957, he was director of several documentaries

In the early 1960s, a group of leftist scholars who were aspiring filmmakers formed what they dubbed Nuevo Cine (New Film). Members of the group included García Ascot, José de la Colina, Salvador Elizondo, Emilio García Riera, and Carlos Monsiváis, who served on the executive board. They were later joined by Jorge Ayala Blanco, Rafael Corkidi, Manuel González Casanova, Salomón Laiter, Paul Leduc, Manuel Michel, José Maria Sbert, and Tomás Pérez Turrent. The goal of the group was to revive and rejuvenate the stagnant Mexican film industry, which had no training facilities for young film aspirants, no archive, and no real interest in developing new talent.

In 1960, he was invited to go to Cuba and participate in a film, Cuba 58 being filmed there. He created two short films, Un Día de Trabajo (A Day of Work, 17 minutes), Los Novios (The Betrothed, 32 minutes) in 1961 which in 1962 were combined with a short, Año Nuevo (The New Year, 29 minutes) by Jorge Fraga to create Cuba 58. which won a Golden Sombrero Award at the Second International Festival but it was their last joint project, as they divorced in 1968. and another on the life of the poet, Baudelaire (1951). He also authored a book about music, Con la música por dentro (With the Music Inside) (1982). He also began working on a novel, La muerte empieza en Polanco (Death Begins in Polanco), which was published posthumously. García Márquez dedicated the book to the couple with the inscription "Para (to) Jomí García Ascot y María Luisa Elío". though it was never shown commercially.

Books and articles Baudelaire, poeta existencial, thesis, Mexico (1951) Haber estado allí, Monterey, México, (1970) Roger von Gunten, biography, Mexico (1978) Con la música por dentro, Mexico (1982) Del tiempo y unas gentes, Mexico (1986) La muerte empieza en Polanco, novel, Mexico (1987) Tres pintores : Pablo Amor, Oscar Gutman, Gabriel Macotela, biography, Mexico (1987)

Poetry Un otoño en el aire (1963) Estar aquí (1967) Seis poemas al margen (1972) Un modo de decir (1975) Poemas de amor perdido y encontrado y otros poemas (1977) Antología personal (1984)

Film Un Día de Trabajo, Cuba (1961) Los Novios, Cuba (1961) En el balcón vacío, Mexico (1961) Remedios Varo, Mexico (1967) El viaje, Mexico (1977) El grupo nuevo cine, Mexico (1984)