The most memorable and valuable part of South of the Border, Oliver Stone’s recent, little-seen documentary about Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales and other South American heads of state, was the damning array of ignorant and slanted reports culled from U.S. newscasts. Challenging the mainstream media’s simplistic and homogenous portrayal of Hispanic culture here and abroad is an ongoing effort, and one of the most valuable functions of the annual San Francisco Latino Film Festival.
A sampling of the fest’s nine narratives and 10 documentaries finds a few, including Ricardo Martinez’s border-furor survey, The Wall, pushing back against stereotypes, misinformation and misconceptions. The Wall conveys the perspective of landowners, sheriffs and mayors in southern Arizona and Texas opposed to the Bush Admministration’s expensive, invasive and imperfect solution — a long wall, or fence, if you prefer — to stopping the wave of illegal immigration. Although slightly scattershot in focus and a tad dated (it ends with Obama’s ’08 victory), the documentary provides a useful, reasoned antidote to the election-year hysteria and knee-jerk racism common on cable news channels.
“The Wall”
Most of the filmmakers, however, are more focused on addressing their own communities, and tackling such issues as the treatment of women, economic opportunity and the scourges of drugs, violence and crime. The straight-shooting opening-night film, La Yuma from Nicaragua, gives us a central character to root for all the way down the line — a poor, honest teenage boxer aching to find a way out of her Managua barrio. She gets a taste of how the other half lives when she hooks up with a clean-cut university student, a dreamy escape from her daily reality of lowlife hustlers, druggies and petty crooks. Director Florence Jaugey keeps the clichés in check, delivering a satisfying and ultimately inspiring film whose mild excursions into fantasy we’re perfectly happy to accept.
