Maquilápolis Maquilapolis, City of Factories Vicky Funari, Sergio de la Torre USA/Mexico, Documentary, 2007 68 min., DigiBeta, Color Spanish/English with English Subtitles Metropolitan 12 Friday, April 20, 7 PM

Carmen Durán works for poverty level wages at one of Tijuana’s 800 maquiladoras—factories of transnational corporations. When the plant where Carmen has worked tries to avoid paying legally-mandated severance pay, Carmen becomes a promotora, or grassroots activist. Through sheer persistence, Carmen and her fellow workers win the severance pay to which they are legally entitled. The filmmakers gave several female workers video cameras with which to record their lives, giving this documentary the intimate feel of video diaries. Tijuana suffered a recession in 2001 as transnationals looking to cut labor costs even further left for Asian countries. In the global marketplace workers are mere commodities. One promotora comments: “I make objects and to the factory managers I myself am only an object, a replaceable part of the production process... I don’t want to be an object, I want to be a person; I want to realize my dreams.”

Vicky Funari is a filmmaker whose work focuses primarily on the lives of working people and on the complex identities of today’s culturally mixed and dynamic migratory populations. Funari produced, directed, and edited the acclaimed nonfiction feature film Paulina, which has screened at Sundance, Locarno, Havana and Amsterdam. Sergio de la Torre is a photographer and performance installation artist. His photographic, performance and installation works have focused on issues regarding diaspora/tourism and identity politics. Their performances and installations have been seen in a variety of venues, including street fairs, academic conferences, art galleries, film festivals and nonprofit art spaces.

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Producer: Vicky Funari, Sergio de la Torre

Production Company: Cinemanías

Cinematographer: Daniel Gorrell, Sophia Constantinos

Editing: Vicky Funari

Music: Pauline Oliveros, Nortec Collective, John Blue