Mastodonte
The talent management firm Kontakto picked Mastodonte as one of its production companies for the U.S. Hispanic market. Three of Mastodonte’s directors – Karina Minujin, Samuel Rios y Valles and Luis Kuri – spoke with PRODU about this new alliance, as well as the projects and ambitions they have as a team. “Mastodonte is currently a fast-growing outfit. We’ve been driven to adapt ourselves to recent circumstances, reinvent ourselves and seek new formats, new opportunities and new strategies,” Kuri said. He added that in that sense, they have grown stronger in a number of ways: they’ve employed new local and international directors, structured a highly professional digital department, launched a content unit, premiered their first movie and made a name for their production department with some high-profile projects. “An international alliance that gives us a strong presence on the U.S. Hispanic market is a very natural step forward on the road we’ve taken. The relationship of mutual admiration with Kontakto has been going on for several years now, so our coming together was really organic,” Kuri said. As for projects and ambitions in the medium term, Minujin noted that they’re out to become one of the production houses preferred by U.S. agencies and clients, and not just on the Hispanic market.“We feel that this is the ideal time to capitalize on all our years of experience in order to film the same way in the U.S. as we do in Mexico. This alliance is a great first step that has already started to bear fruit. We’re currently filming a great project for Casanova//McCann and we have many others waiting in the wings, including a production for England that we’re shooting in mid-November,” she announced.As for the story going around that they were putting together a team to do advertising targeting Hispanic viewers in the U.S., Rios y Valles made it clear that they are seeking to create a genuine connection with that audience while ditching the old cliches.“We understand the subtle differences among Spanish-speaking countries, which allows us to seek scripts that have nothing to do with the old cliches but are in touch with real feelings. We’re Hispanics sending messages to Hispanics and we want those messages to be always honest and reflect the realities of the audience,” he said.
