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Patricia Riggen Crosses Borders
(Page 2)
MM: For many immigrants, this is a familiar story, just one in a million, and yet there are many Americans who have probably never seen it described this way. How do you make both audiences care?
PR: The trick is to not be political—to not tell a political story, but a human story. If you stay on the human side of things, you become universal and that is how I think that I’ve been able to engage both audiences and to have them embrace the film as their own.
MM: Are you surprised by their reactions?
PR: I’m very surprised, because when I first made it I thought that it was a movie exclusively for the Latino audience and very shortly after I screened it for the first time I realized that the other audience—the American audience—loved it and was really moved by it.
MM: Casting was so important in this film, especially for the role of Carlitos. How did you come to cast Adrian Alonso?
PR: Adrian is a very experienced actor at his young age. He’s done several films before so I looked at all of his work. I auditioned him a couple of times to make sure that he was the right kid. At first he didn’t strike me as anything special but then I saw him improvising and I realized how smart, quick and talented he is. That’s when I decided to bring him on. The entire movie is on his shoulders, so it was very crucial that I had the right kid playing Carlitos.
MM: In the hopes of having it reach a wider audience here in the U.S., did you ever consider not making the film in Spanish?
PR: No, because I wanted to keep it very true to the characters. If two Mexicans are together, they’re going to speak Spanish—no doubt—so why put it in English? I wasn’t answering to commercial interests there and I think that is a good thing, because it makes it very honest and very true.
MM: As a documentary moviemaker, are there any particular lessons or qualities that you bring to feature moviemaking?
PR: Yes, in a way, I think that the truer you are to your characters and the more that you let them be, and not force them into what you want, the more truthful it is and the more interesting and realistic and natural and compelling. So in a way, taking that from documentary into narrative is a good thing.
MM: You are a female Mexican film director. Is there one identity with which you most identify?
PR: I am everything—I am a woman, I am Mexican and I am a director. I use different parts of myself at different moments, or all of them together at the same time. I cant separate from all of what I am. I think that the interesting thing—or the good thing—is that we use who we are to feel special. It is what makes me special—being a woman and being Mexican is what makes me special.
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- Comment by anatoliy on 4/22/08 at 6:14 am
:)
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