They seek to renew Sogem half a century after its foundation

The General Society of Writers of Mexico (Sogem) will celebrate half a century of existence on August 23. Manuel Rodríguez Ajenjo, president of its board of directors, said that he has the objective of removing it “from the state of immersion in which it has been immersed” since the death of his predecessor in office Víctor Hugo Rascón (1948-2008).

The screenwriter expressed The Day that the playwright was “very effective, despite the illness he had in his last years, he moved a lot and brought society out of the lethargy it was in, but it fell back into a certain social immobility.”

This year, Sogem will develop a program of conferences, book presentations and workshops. He will present the prizes for the Playwriting contests, dedicated to Víctor Hugo Rascón, and the Film Screenplay contests, in honor of Vicente Leñero. Recognition will also be made of its living and active founding partners.

The president recalled that for its creation, Sogem brought together the Society of Radio and Television Cinematographic Writers and the National Union of Theater Authors. “We were a fairly modest society and deeply rooted in cinema, where it was born. When they joined, they also invited writers, at that time sacred monsters like Juan Rulfo, Fernando del Paso and some more. José Agustín was also there.”

For the 50 years of the management company, Juan Villoro will give a conference and present a book, as will Ramón Obón, Alfredo Gudinni and Antonio Armonía, creator of And your mom toowhile Alfonso Rosas Priego will explain in a talk how a film is made and, in addition, will teach an artificial intelligence workshop.

Likewise, there will be a series of conferences by women linked to audiovisual production, such as Itzia Pintado and Ximena Suárez, known for their soap operas. Teresa y Doménica Montero.

Manuel Rodríguez, who wrote scripts for comedy shows like crazy salad, Ambrosio’s carbine y The privilege of commanding will give the talk Laughter provoked by comedy.

The recent achievements and work of Sogem are that it was able to register some members for social security in the modality of independent workers and is now seeking agreements with the platforms of streamingin which, according to the current president, “is the future of audiovisual entertainment. We have already located Netflix and started talks with them. At Amazon we are just starting a small dialogue, almost a monologue.”

The screenwriter said that among his most prominent partners today are Carlos Mercado, creator of The Rose of Guadalupe; Carlos Romero, author of The rich cry too, Maria from the neighborhood, Marimar y Maria Mercedes. He recalled that some associated writers were Ricardo Garibay, Luis Spota and José Emilio Pacheco, but not for literature, but for their collaboration in cinema.

In a letter signed by Rodríguez Ajenjo, it was reported that at the beginning of the year he was invited by Claudia Curiel de Icaza, head of federal Culture, to join with voice and vote the National Council for the Promotion of Books and Reading.