Hostile Border: A Cross-Genre Film about Crossing the Line

Did I ever tell you about the time Phillip and I walked into Mexico?

On the Border

Okay, before I start the movie review, here’s the short version: We took the trolley from San Diego south to the border, over this elaborate pedestrian bridge with tall metal turnstiles. On the other side was a Mexican soldier with a big gun just kind of hanging out there, not checking anyone’s papers or even making eye contact. We stepped off the bridge into a super sketchy part of Tijuana, rolling suitcases bumping along behind us, trying not to get robbed (or worse) while we looked for a bus where there wasn’t any.

I don’t recommend that particular way to see Mexico.

There are some lovely parts of Tijuana, but the border draws danger, making the city swell with the pressure of desperate outsiders.

Over the Line

The film Hostile Border begins, not on the border, but in Illinois, where it plunges you immediately into the world of the ambitious main character, Claudia. Minimal exposition. No flashbacks. It moves quickly and lets you fill in the gaps.

After Claudia’s history of credit card fraud and undocumented status catch up with her, she is deported – through another metal turnstile in a Tijuana port of entry – into Mexico, where she has little connection and even less knowledge of the language.

One thing the film does explain outright is the meaning of its working title, “pocha”, slang for “a Mexican American who can speak little or no Spanish”. It can also refer to something rotten. The first definition definitely applies to Claudia. Whether the second one does is a question posed throughout the film in various ways.

Does committing crime mean you are a criminal? What happens after you cross the line?

Veronica Sixtos’s performance as Claudia is so compelling you don’t miss words during her long stretches of silence, yet she conveys emotion and inner conflict subtly enough to be consistent with the character’s guarded nature.

Hostile Border is about the people who build fences to protect themselves, and the ones who believe crossing them is worth the risk. It pulses between the genres of thriller and western with moments of intensity balanced by scenes with room to reveal the complicated relationships between layered characters.

Inspired in part by conversations with actual deportees, this debut feature film for both director/cinematographer Michael Dwyer and writer/co-director Kaitlin McLaughlin won the 2015 the Audience Award at the Los Angeles Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize for Directing.

Hostile Border opens in select theaters (see list below) and on digital/video on demand platforms April 15. You can preorder it on iTunes now.

Theaters:

Arizona

Cinema Latino (Phoenix)
Harkins Theatres Spectrum 18 (Tucson)

California

Laemmle Noho 7 (LA)
Media Arts Center (San Diego)

Colorado

Sie Film Center (Denver)

Illinois

Gene Siskel Film Center (Chicago)

Texas

Cinema Latino (Pasadena)

—
Images and preview courtesy of Samuel Goldwyn Films.

April 4, 2016January 9, 2018

Make a Travel Journal from Envelopes

The envelope travel journals we made in my most recent Southwest Maker Fest workshop came from a combination of this upcycled junk mail project and a simplified version of one my friend Trish came up with.

The idea is that you can make them from just a couple envelopes and some string, and then have a pocket-sized way to record memories from your next trip.

1. Fold an envelope in half – use a #10 (DL) envelope or experiment with other sizes, upcycle junk mail or reply envelopes, etc.

2. Punch a hole or two in the center (on the fold).

3. Cut the top flap at the fold or remove it altogether.

4. Repeat with one or more envelopes.

5. Thread yarn, string, or twine through the hole(s) of all the envelopes and tie them together. (Alternatively, you can bind the envelopes with ring binders, paper clips and/or rubber bands.)

The envelope outsides have become pages for writing, drawing, or collaging the story of your trip, and you can tuck momentos inside.

—

March 31, 2016March 31, 2016

Introducing the Omni Charlottesville Hotel

Have you ever stayed at an Omni?

Omni-Directional

My introduction to the chain, which has 60 hotels and resorts throughout North America, was our stay at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel during our trip to Virginia. We were greeted with a bottle of local merlot in our room. Nice to meet you, indeed.

Each Omni location has its own style, informed by the area’s “local color.” The Charlottesville hotel has contemporary Southern decor and an atrium with tropical plants. Browsing around other destinations’ photo galleries, you can see that the one in Scottsdale has a Mediterranean theme. L.A.’s feels a bit Hollywood. Nashville’s has kind of an urban cowboy look.

The brand’s intention is to make its hotels “the focal points of their cities.” In the case of Charlottesville, it’s a community hub, located right off the Downtown Mall, serving as First Night Virginia volunteer check-in site and headquarters for the Virginia Festival of the Book.

Omni-Presents

Besides celebrating the uniqueness of each location, Omni also recognizes the individuality of their guests with a loyalty program that focuses on personalized amenities.

If you stay just two nights, for example, you’re eligible for complimentary morning beverages. Check off what you want the night before, and it shows up at your door in the morning. This is especially great if you’re not a morning person, or if you’ve ever watched Downton Abbey and thought “why doesn’t my day start with someone at my door with a tea tray?!”

Omni-Competent

There was really good service throughout our stay. When our safe wasn’t working, someone came the same day to fix it and even left a little note.

Many of the other guests of the wedding we were attending stayed there, too, since it also had shuttle service to area wineries and the wedding brunch was held right in the hotel’s restaurant, The Pointe. There are several meeting rooms on site, as well.

On New Year’s Eve, the Omni provided complimentary valet parking, extra security on site, and a reminder about quiet hours after 10pm. It’s definitely a good-night’s-rest place and not a party place (although Mr. Cheeseface managed to get a little crazy).

It didn’t really affect us, since we spent the evening at the wedding. But I think we might’ve got shushed for laughing too loudly on the way back to our room that night.

On New Year’s Day, our morning beverage tray also included a couple of apples and a note wishing that our resolutions would come to fruition.

It made me smile and was a nice touch to start the new year.

—

We received media rates for our stay at the Omni Charlottesville Hotel.

March 28, 2016March 24, 2016

Advice Art

I met artist Betsy Halford at the Hidden in the Hills Studio tour, and I really dig her work. She does really interesting mixed media pieces, work in wax, collaged cards, and jewelry from found items.

She is working on a new piece that will incorporate advice people would give their younger selves.

You can take part in this collaborative work (anonymously, if you wish) by emailing her at betsy [at] monkeygirlartwork.com and answering this question:

If you could go back in time and give yourself some advice, wisdom or support, what age would you go back to and what advice would you give yourself?

So, what advice do you have for a younger you?
—

March 24, 2016March 23, 2016

Michelangelo in Draft

By the time he was 37, Michelangelo was finishing up painting the Sistine Chapel.

Um, reading that kinda made me wonder what I’ve done in my life.

I was at the Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition at Phoenix Art Museum with my mom and art-history-major aunt looking at a collection of his drawings. They were drafts, really, studies for later works, mostly in thin lines of red or black chalk – but still breathtaking.

These permanent works-in-progress normally reside in Casa Buonarroti in Florence, Italy, but 26 of them are on tour and have made a stop in Phoenix.

Usually, when you see artwork, you see the final product. It is a complete thing: a painting, a sculpture. It’s easy to forget it didn’t just leap fully formed from the artist’s head.

In these drawings, you see so much more of the process – an arm sketched in multiple positions, geometric lines that determined the position of a face, an architectural drawing on the back of a letter.

Maybe like the Renaissance equivalent of cocktail napkin sketches, or, as Cammy Brothers of the Wall Street Journal put it: “Masterpieces on a Shopping List.”

After circling through the exhibition, I felt a bit better. Even this great idealist had projects that had to be simplified due to budget constraints. And works that were never completed. And more ideas than he had time for.

Even Michelangelo started with rough drafts.

—
The Michelangelo: Sacred and Profane exhibition will be at the Phoenix Art Museum through this Sunday, March 27.

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