Thursday, November 13, 2008

Maquilapolis: Bridging the Gap

Watching "Maquilapolis" makes me think back to "Stranger with a Camera." Much like the filmmakers that flocked to Appalachia, Funari and De La Torre hoped to educate others about an important issue through the art of documentary film. The difference between Funari and De La Torre and the other filmmakers, however, is their chosen process of creation. The filmmakers in Appalachia chose use the local residents as subjects rather than participants. They asked leading questions and, in my opinion, uncovered a relatively limited sample of what life is truly like in that region. Their role as outsiders limited their ability as filmmakers and created an uneasy relationship with the locals. Funari and De La Torre, on the other hand, did not treat the promotoras as mere subjects; they allowed the factory workers active participantion in the filmmaking process. Funari and De La Torre are just as much outsiders in Tijuana as the other filmmakers were in Appalachia. However, Funari and De La Torre seem to have realized this role, as well as their consequent inability to present a well-rounded glimpse in to factory life without further assistance. Rather than accept this handicap or abandon the project altogether, though, Funari and De La Torre enlist the aid of several promotoras.

This collaboration bridges the gap between local and outsider, allowing both groups to use their specialized skills in order to create a better product. The promotoras can illuminate factory life in a way that Funari and De La Torre cannot; no matter how much research the two filmmakers do, they can not obtain the knowledge and intuition of the promotoras. On the other hand, Funari and De La Torre CAN create a technically well-made documentary in a way that the promotoras cannot; no matter how many workshops the promotoras go through, Funari and De La Torre will always have a greater store of experience, equipment, and training in the field. Thus, the promotoras provide the filmmakers with good, revealing footage, which the filmmakers then edit into a documentary easily digestible by the public-at-large. Allowing both groups to exercise their strength, the filmmakers produce a documentary that is superior to any film that could have been made solely by one group or the other.

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