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LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE |
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Contributed by Sara Schieron
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Saturday, 13 May 2006 |
LETTERS FROM THE OTHER SIDE by Heather Courtney is a documentary about
the lives of mothers and wives in Mexico who have been left by their
men. Seeking a better life for their families, these men risk (and
lose) their lives in hopes of finding more profitable, sustainable
work. Some send money, some make promises they can't seem to fulfill,
others disappear, leaving their mothers and wives abandoned in an
economic environment that isn't just inhospitable, it's almost
insupportable. |
Much like the well-balanced film essays of ITVS favorite Lourdes Portillo, LETTERS offers a very strong position, both initiating and carrying out its activism as part of the film. Cutting from the video correspondence of Maria in Mexico, we see her son and estranged husband in the US, as they tearfully watch her wish them well. Maria's husband and son respond to the video letter with one of their own and we then see Maria (and her family's) responses to that video letter. What is so validating and potent about this process, a process that would otherwise just satisfy our concern on the level of human-interest is that the filmmaker takes these letters to their addressees, at one point even taking the letters to the office of Homeland Security. What this film actively does is validates its cause with action - the film isn't just a tool for activism, the film depicts activism, and that is infinitely potent. Interspersing these video letters with the day-to-day lives of the mothers and women left in Mexico we also read captions that reflect upon the death toll, economic condition, and border patrol situations (often comparing Pre and Post-NAFTA) in-between the two nations today. It becomes promptly clear that the policies put in place by these (hopefully) well intending governments, have not in fact benefited those for whom they were written.
Simply and intelligently, the issue of Governmental responsibility is broached. This community of rural women has been, for all intent and purposes, abandoned, as are so many families in Mexico. The film tells us that the money sent from these immigrants to their families in Mexico provides a higher annual income than what the country earns from its export of oil. To an effect, the supply and demand situation that their devastation creates is not one that the country is rushing to change. The women of this film represent the victims of this situation. In many ways they are powerless, but they're certainly sound of mind and clearly capable of action. Seeking outlets for their products, these women go to The Women's Coop project to sell their tapestries and quilts. The founder of the Co-op explains that part of the purpose of the organization is to "slow down the exodus of fathers and sons to the United States." Women left by this "exodus" are put at a severe disadvantage, but the women we meet here are clearly empowered by their self-sufficiency.
Both empowering and traumatic, the film looks at these women as agents of change, and on the level with these agents is the filmmaker who, does more than just ask questions in letters, she seeks out the answer. The first question was a hard one: "What does the United States have that they forget about México?" The answer isn't simple, but Courtney posits that notion that tracking down an answer isn't impossible.
Podcast with director Heather Courtney available!
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