ALL, THE MEXICO WE LOVE, THE WORK WE LOVE, THE INDUSTRY WE LOVE

Introducing “Our Man In Mexico,” a column by The Lift Founder Avelino Rodriguez

In the coming months, The Lift’s Founder, Avelino Rodriguez, will write and publish a monthly column for Little Black Book, where he will capture and reveal some of the magic of Mexico. His LBB editorial debut, “Our Man in Mexico”, follows Avelino, alongside The Lift’s Managing Partner José Barrera, on an imaginary journey across Mexico to share the best that Mexico has to offer the production industry and our souls. Read the first one below!

As we all start coming out of Covid and the world slowly begins returning to ‘normal’, we’ve been reviewing our own priorities and presence here at The Lift in Mexico. Our life here is based on strong cultural pillars that embrace everything we do and love, our food, our arts, our music, fiestas and families, our Latin way of being. It’s an authentic culture, we have a lust for life that is in our blood.Like many cities recently, we have faced some severe restrictions on our freedom through Covid-19 which has placed much of our daily lifestyle and culture on hold. But now, as we get back on track, I believe it’s more important than ever for us to try to share the spirit of our country and people with the world. Pride for our country is at the heart of everything that we do and our work within the production industry is a true celebration of Mexico’s history and its diverse and contemporary culture. We are surrounded by inspiration here – from our variety of magnificent locations to the breadth of our home-grown talent – our country has inspired some wonderful projects from agency creatives and brands from all over the world. In this new monthly column, I’m going to take you behind the scenes of our wonderful home and try to share some of its magic with you – to prepare you for one of the best experiences of your life, when you can visit Mexico! I will show you why our country still has such untapped potential for film and commercials projects, way beyond the recognized stereotypes that often depict our nation – tequila, burritos, wrestling, mariachi, our temples and the origin of chocolate. Across the next few months, alongside José Barrera, The Lift’s Managing Partner, we’ll be taking you on an imaginary journey across Mexico to share with you the best that Mexico has to offer the production industry and our souls!

From Baja in the northwest to Oaxaca (pronounced Wahaca) in the south, Jalisco in the west to Yucatan in the east, from our mountains to our beaches, our pyramids and Grand Canyon, from the Pacific Ocean all the way to the Caribbean and the Gulf…. and everything in between, we’ll uncover our rich culture, through the people, lifestyles, and culinary specialities from the areas. We can’t wait to let you see some of the real Mexico, please join us on our journey and let us inspire you.

Whilst you ready your bags for our upcoming trip, let me share some of our recent news. This month has been about women. We’ve just celebrated IWD 2021 (International Women’s Day) and it’s some of our own female champions here at The Lift who have truly made things happen over our past 15 years. Equality and diversity have always played key roles in our structure and 60% of our staff roster is female with 64% of our executive positions occupied by women. Our female leads can be found in our finance, communication, bidding and travel teams and across our client facing production specialists, local directors and full time crews. Our latest recruits are Bastienne Dominique Deffis Kolb joining our creative marketing team and Paola Gomez who has just launched our new casting service company Yanga – with over 127 million here in Mexico we have untapped talent (street cast models, actors or performance artists) for all types of media content.

I hope you’ll join us via LBB Online on our journey in April.
Until then, hay que mantenernos todos a salvo.

Avelino x