"Bordertown"-best film of 2007
Kelpzoidzl
Film maker Gregory Nava, Starign Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderos.
NAFTA is all its glory.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008510-bordertown/
Saw it last night on ON Demand Pay TV.
dc
Kelpzoidzl
I am sure that the story behind how this film was hidden from view is part
of the story.
dc
"Kelpzoidzl" <kelp...@mastadon.net> wrote in message
news:47d81560$0$6140$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
Kelpzoidzl
"Director Gregory Nava and executive producer Barbara Martinez-Jitner
believed that the film would bring strong reactions. Nava has said the
production received threats against himself and the cast. Also, there was
stolen equipment and intimidation of film crew members when they filmed in
Mexico.
According to the Martinez-Jitner when they first filmed in Ciudad Juárez,
the police began threatening locals who were helping the production and to
began stalk the crew. Also, a camera truck was vandalized and $100,000 worth
of film equipment was stolen.
Bordertown places the blame for the murders to the Mexican government, the
United States, and to the maquiladora assembly plants that were accelerated
by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Nava said, "[When] there are very powerful forces involved, you're going to
be attacked. I expect the Mexican government to get very upset about it."
[12]"
dc
"Kelpzoidzl" <kelp...@mastadon.net> wrote in message
news:47d81560$0$6140$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
Kelpzoidzl
Anti-Jennifer Lopez nonsense. Lots of indignation.
Film must push some buttons.
dc
"Kelpzoidzl" <kelp...@mastadon.net> wrote in message
news:47d8176b$0$6127$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
Kelpzoidzl
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975234.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
dc
"Kelpzoidzl" <kelp...@mastadon.net> wrote in message
news:47d8176b$0$6127$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
Wordsmith
The DVD is quite popular at our library: there are 12 holdable copies
and I'm number 102 in the wanna-see-it list!
W : )
Harry Bailey
> Variety article, "straight to DVD"
>
> http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117975234.html?categoryid=13&cs=1
>
> dc
>
>
> news:47d8176b$0$6127$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
>
>
>
> > From Wikipedia
>
> > "Director Gregory Nava and executive producer Barbara Martinez-Jitner
> > believed that the film would bring strong reactions. Nava has said the
> > production received threats against himself and the cast. Also, there was
> > stolen equipment and intimidation of film crew members when they filmed in
> > Mexico.
> > According to the Martinez-Jitner when they first filmed in Ciudad Juárez,
> > the police began threatening locals who were helping the production and to
> > began stalk the crew. Also, a camera truck was vandalized and $100,000
> > worth of film equipment was stolen.
> > Bordertown places the blame for the murders to the Mexican government, the
> > United States, and to the maquiladora assembly plants that were
> > accelerated by the North American Free Trade Agreement.
> > Nava said, "[When] there are very powerful forces involved, you're going
> > to be attacked. I expect the Mexican government to get very upset about
> > it." [12]"
>
> > dc
>
> >news:47d81560$0$6140$4c36...@roadrunner.com...
> >> Ahhhh..... we were scammed out of knowing this film exists.....
>
> >> Film maker Gregory Nava, Starign Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderos.
>
> >> NAFTA is all its glory.
>
> >>http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008510-bordertown/
>
> >> Saw it last night on ON Demand Pay TV.
>
>
Nava's debut film from 1984, El Norte, was one of the first
'independent US features', long before even Jim Jarmusch (much less
the 'my ticket to Hollywood' Tarantino-led bratpack), so his work is
always worthing viewing, but the following fairly accurately
summarises why the film was 'booed' at the Berlin film festival last
yesr:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,466779,00.html
Quote: "The Berliner Zeitung says the film is "funny, but
unintentionally" reporting that viewers at the press screening had
reacted with "frenetic laughter" at supposedly serious scenes. However
the film is also "pretty distasteful" at the same time: the critic
accuses J-Lo of exploiting the real suffering of the Mexican women in
order to become a star in the Central American market. "It's no
coincidence that the film is coming out at the same time as her new
record, the first where she sings entirely in Spanish," the paper
writes."
A reasonable, though ultimately smug, review is here:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2478&reviewid=VE1117932825&cs=1
Quote: "It's crucial to the pic's political agenda that Eva is a
"maquiladora," an employee of one of the many huge factories making
consumer goods such as computers and TV sets that have sprouted up
along the U.S.-Mexican border since the introduction of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The terrible conditions of many
of these factories was profiled recently in well-regarded 2006 docu
"Maquilopolis."
Script here implies that all 400 of the recorded cases (film suggests
possibly up to 5,000) of the slain women were maquiladoras, and that
the failure of local law enforcement to investigate the crime is, in
some shadowy way, connected to the (mostly U.S.-owned) companies
themselves, at best because protecting the workers' lives isn't
profitable, at worst because powerful capitalists themselves are
responsible for the murders.
Bordertown" builds a passionate and justified condemnation not just of
the violence against women in the area, but uses this misleading
statement of the facts to launch a more scattershot attack against
NAFTA itself and the exploitation of Mexican labor that's been allowed
to metastasize in its name. Result is neither convincing agitprop nor
convincing political science, or even accurate reportage. Possible co-
factors or causes of the real crime spree, such as rife drug-related
criminality, domestic violence largely ignored by the authorities, and
the possibility that at least some of the culprits may be U.S.
citizens crossing the border to kill for kicks, are not explored
here."
So, according to this hilarious reviewer, Nava's analysis is 'just
another conspiracy theory', such systematic atrocities committed
against women workers to be explained away as the result of a bit of
old 'domestic violence' and 'drug-related criminality'. I wonder does
she have a similar domestication 'theory' about the 1 million-plus
who have been killed in Iraq over the past 5 years? Yup, they just
like killin' each other, "It's in their nature."
Actually, the just-released Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealers is another
film about the exploitation of Mexican workers (interesting that the
very first film about this topic, the 1950s classic Salt of the Earth,
had similar difficulties being produced, the director eventually being
blacklisted, as with the Spartacus scriptwriter, thanks to Hollywood,
with assistance from McCarthyism), this time from the genre
perspective of SF:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979135.html?categoryid=2878&cs=1
Quote: "With his sci-fi debut "Sleep Dealer," screening in Sundance's
dramatic competition, Rivera makes good on his promise and reflects on
another fascinating paradox: Call it "The Matrix" meets "El Norte,"
the film envisions a future where Mexicans no longer cross the U.S.
border looking for work, but plug themselves into Tijuana-based cyber
networks to remotely operate worker robots.
Ten years ago, Rivera explored the idea in a satirical mock-doc called
"Why Cybraceros?" Expanding upon the short, "Sleep Dealer" fully
realizes the concept -- all the work, without the workers. "
Kelpzoidzl
"Wordsmith" <word...@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
news:98427597-858a-48dd...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
W : )
Interesting.
I would guess that word of mouth will spread the word that the film is an
important one.
It reminds me a little of Stone's Salvador, and Sebastian Cordero's ,
"Cronicas" (which is an amazing film, I've seen recently on ON Demand ) but
Bordertown, is much closer (too close) to home and more mainstream and
relevent to what is going on right now. Why the critics panned it is
bizarre to me.
I think some people have trouble with Jennifer Lopez, either they expect it
to be fluff, or they are judging her because she is rich and famous. I
think in the past she has already proven she can act, but making a relevent
and distrubing film must rub alot of people wrong.
dc
Kelpzoidzl
best to see the film before reading all this
"Female homicides in Ciudad Juárez"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez
dc
Harry Bailey
> "Wordsmith" <wordsm...@rocketmail.com> wrote in message
>
> news:98427597-858a-48dd...@e25g2000prg.googlegroups.com...
> On Mar 12, 11:39 am, "Kelpzoidzl" <kelpz...@mastadon.net> wrote:
>
> > Ahhhh..... we were scammed out of knowing this film exists.....
>
> > Film maker Gregory Nava, Starign Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderos.
>
> > NAFTA is all its glory.
>
> >http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10008510-bordertown/
>
> > Saw it last night on ON Demand Pay TV.
>
> > dc
>
> The DVD is quite popular at our library: there are 12 holdable copies
> and I'm number 102 in the wanna-see-it list!
>
> W : )
>
> Interesting.
>
> I would guess that word of mouth will spread the word that the film is an
> important one.
>
> It reminds me a little of Stone's Salvador, and Sebastian Cordero's ,
> "Cronicas" (which is an amazing film, I've seen recently on ON Demand ) but
> Bordertown, is much closer (too close) to home and more mainstream and
> relevent to what is going on right now. Why the critics panned it is
> bizarre to me.
Why is it 'bizarre'? Such censorship of 'political' films is routine,
but in this case there are other factors too, as already alluded to
above.
>
> I think some people have trouble with Jennifer Lopez,
Why are you so obsessed with defending Jennifer Lopez? Don't worry, we
all know the answer, have always known the answer since you began
using and trolling this newsgroup to promote your pseudo-Buddhist
ravings.
You see, folks, Lopez is a 'Buddhist'!! (or rather, having been
seduced by hedonistic sex-addict Richard Gere's twisted, egotistical
ravings on the subject, she 'became' a designer buddhist). So she can
do no wrong ...
If Hitler was a 'Buddhist", Kelps, wouldn't you be polluting this
newsgroup with Nazi propaganda? (and hardly for the first time, given
your past resort to neo-Nazi websites to slander Freud).
Kelpzoidzl
Nava's debut film from 1984, El Norte, was one of the first
'independent US features', long before even Jim Jarmusch (much less
the 'my ticket to Hollywood' Tarantino-led bratpack), so his work is
always worthing viewing, but the following fairly accurately
summarises why the film was 'booed' at the Berlin film festival last
yesr:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,466779,00.html
Quote: "The Berliner Zeitung says the film is "funny, but
unintentionally" reporting that viewers at the press screening had
reacted with "frenetic laughter" at supposedly serious scenes. However
the film is also "pretty distasteful" at the same time: the critic
accuses J-Lo of exploiting the real suffering of the Mexican women in
order to become a star in the Central American market. "It's no
coincidence that the film is coming out at the same time as her new
record, the first where she sings entirely in Spanish," the paper
writes." <<<<<<<<<<<<<<
This comment is ridiculous. There is nothing in the film that is even
remotely "funny," unless you are oogling Jennifer Lopez's breasts and ass
and have the IQ and behavior of Weasal.
Someone who can't tell the difference between "exploitation" and
courageously getting out a message, must have not been able to get past
Lopez's breasts.
Just stupid. Lopez won an award from Amnesty International at the Berlin
International Film Festival and was nominated at the Berlin International
Film Festival: Golden Berlin Bear; Gregory Nava; 2007.
I had already read and dismissed that absurd review.
A reasonable, though ultimately smug, review is here:
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2478...
Quote: "It's crucial to the pic's political agenda that Eva is a
"maquiladora," an employee of one of the many huge factories making
consumer goods such as computers and TV sets that have sprouted up
along the U.S.-Mexican border since the introduction of the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The terrible conditions of many
of these factories was profiled recently in well-regarded 2006 docu
"Maquilopolis."
Script here implies that all 400 of the recorded cases (film suggests
possibly up to 5,000) of the slain women were maquiladoras, and that
the failure of local law enforcement to investigate the crime is, in
some shadowy way, connected to the (mostly U.S.-owned) companies
themselves, at best because protecting the workers' lives isn't
profitable, at worst because powerful capitalists themselves are
responsible for the murders. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
"I think we know what Corporations (and some in the Governments) are like."
This film should be required viewing.
>>>>>>Bordertown" builds a passionate and justified condemnation not just of
the violence against women in the area, but uses this misleading
statement of the facts to launch a more scattershot attack against
NAFTA itself and the exploitation of Mexican labor that's been allowed
to metastasize in its name. Result is neither convincing agitprop nor
convincing political science, or even accurate reportage. Possible co-
factors or causes of the real crime spree, such as rife drug-related
criminality, domestic violence largely ignored by the authorities, and
the possibility that at least some of the culprits may be U.S.
citizens crossing the border to kill for kicks, are not explored
here." <<<<<<<
Smug is right.
Herd, displaced, poor women into assembly lines, in a get rich quick town
with rampant corruption and no protection, was just inviting this horror to
happen. And this is "agitprop"?
>>>>>>>So, according to this hilarious reviewer, Nava's analysis is 'just
another conspiracy theory', such systematic atrocities committed
against women workers to be explained away as the result of a bit of
old 'domestic violence' and 'drug-related criminality'. I wonder does
she have a similar domestication 'theory' about the 1 million-plus
who have been killed in Iraq over the past 5 years? Yup, they just
like killin' each other, "It's in their nature."
Actually, the just-released Alex Rivera's Sleep Dealers is another
film about the exploitation of Mexican workers (interesting that the
very first film about this topic, the 1950s classic Salt of the Earth,
had similar difficulties being produced, the director eventually being
blacklisted, as with the Spartacus scriptwriter, thanks to Hollywood,
with assistance from McCarthyism), this time from the genre
perspective of SF:
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979135.html?categoryid=2878&cs=1
Quote: "With his sci-fi debut "Sleep Dealer," screening in Sundance's
dramatic competition, Rivera makes good on his promise and reflects on
another fascinating paradox: Call it "The Matrix" meets "El Norte,"
the film envisions a future where Mexicans no longer cross the U.S.
border looking for work, but plug themselves into Tijuana-based cyber
networks to remotely operate worker robots.
Ten years ago, Rivera explored the idea in a satirical mock-doc called
"Why Cybraceros?" Expanding upon the short, "Sleep Dealer" fully
realizes the concept -- all the work, without the workers. "<<<<<<<<<<<
I've gotta see that one.
Having On Demand Sundance Channel on cable is great. it was showing
"Cronicos" last month--another about Journalists in the "third
world." --this one in Ecudor---- and a whole slew of good Japanese horror
movies that haven't made it to Blockbuster Video.
dc
Kelpzoidzl
Corrected the formatting that sqeezed together on last post makin git
unreadable
Harry Bailey writes:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,466779,00.html
http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=review&id=2478...
"I think we all know what Corporations (and some in the Governments) are
like."
Smug is right.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117979135.html?categoryid=2878&cs=1
---- and a whole slew of recent, good Japanese horror