MEXICO’S CROSSROADS
Mexico’s Crossroads (Mexico | 2014 | 25’ | HD | Spanish with/English subtitles)
Synopsis
Mexico's Crossroads tells the story of Alba, a single mother and street vendor, who fights to maintain custody of her four children despite lacking stable employment, a school for them, or a safe home to raise them.
Crew:
Director: Juan Pablo Rojas y Fernando Valencia.
Producer: Jean Garner (Al Jaazera English).
Screenwriter: Juan Pablo Rojas.
Editor: Juan Pablo Rojas .
Cinematographer: Juan Pablo Rojas y Fernando Valencia.
Audio: Miguel Chávez Navarro
Audio post-production: Kaparasound studios
Festivals:
2015 Documentary film Series at the III Latin American and the Caribbean Social Science Conference. Quito, Ecuador.
It all started with a project called “The Street family” in April 2012…
In April 2012, Juan Pablo and I were looking to start a new documentary film. We listened that people who usually worked or lived on the streets started characterizing themselves as migrants heading the US as a strategy of requesting money from drivers at the traffic lights. Central American Migrants and the street population started sharing the same spaces and the society began inquiring about this new phenomenon.
Since 2006 or even before, hundreds of Central American migrants walk throughout Guadalajara in their transit to the US. During the first years, they were hidden in insecure areas of the city were no many people transit. However, by 2012 there were migrants and street population dress like them on the streets interacting with the local community. These populations that used to be invisible started being a matter of public scrutiny.
We set about exploring this dynamic. How does the local community react over this situation? Were migrants or street population being stigmatized more than before by society? Was there any conflict among these groups? On this path, we contacted non-profit organizations that work with these populations in order to better understand the challenges they both, migrants and street population, were facing since this new dynamic started. That is when we met Otilia, a community leader of the group called "Friends working in the cruise" (Amigos trabajando en los cruceros).
During several meetings, we had the opportunity to learn part of their life history and their daily struggles that "raza callejera" faces. She shared experiences that allowed us to understand the complexity of making a living by working or even living on the streets. This is how the idea of going deeper into her life story arises, and we proposed Otilia to produce a film base on her efforts to organized dozens of street workers. We initially decided to title this project as "The Street family", however, once we consolidated a better story, the film was released under the name "Mexico's Crossroads".
