Immigrants inspire filmmakers
by Dana J. Parker
The Metropolitan
Jason Chevarria / The Metropolitan
Filmmakers Sergio Arau and his wife Yareli Arizmendi speak about their
film “A Day Without a Mexican,” Thursday, Sept. 30 in the
Tivoli Turnhalle.
Inspiration for the film “A Day Without a Mexican” came to
its creators in two American cities on opposite coasts.
Director Sergio Arau and one of the film’s writers Yareli Arizmendi
explained how the project was conceived and completed as part of Hispanic
Heritage Month at the Tivoli Turnhalle on Thursday, Sept. 30.
California in 1994 was not a comfortable place for Latinos, according
to Arizmendi. Gov. Pete Wilson was running for re-election on the platform
of Proposition 187, which denied undocumented immigrants access to certain
public services, including medical and education.
Wilson said all of California’s problems at that time were due
to illegal immigrants using the state’s services, according to Arizmendi.
“And he said that it was costing California $3 billion a year,”
she said. “Nobody was reporting on how much profit California was
making off of illegal aliens, which was an estimated $97 billion. 97 billion
minus three billion leaves 94 billion. I think that’s a pretty good
deal.”
On a trip to New York City later that year, Arau and Arizmendi noticed
street posters declaring “A Day Without Art” to call attention
to the effect AIDS had on the art community. This gave them the germ of
an idea of making a piece of art—a musical, a story, a movie—about
what would happen if all Latinos suddenly disappeared.
Ten years later, that germ of an idea became the feature-length film
“A Day Without a Mexican,” which opened in California theaters
in May, 2004. Now, the film is making its way to theaters in cities across
the United States.
Along the way, Arizmendi said, there were many twists and turns. The
film originally was made in 1998 as a 28-minute short and was shown at
independent film festivals.
Occasionally, the film would be turned down as an entry because festival
organizers didn’t know which category to place it in, she said.
One festival returned the film because they had no “Spanish section,”
she said, and they resorted to putting labels on it which read “100
percent Spanish-free.”
“It really sucks out the truth ... and the perceptions people have,”
Arizmendi said.
The film was a favorite at international film fests, she said. Audiences
loved it, and it won audience awards but not film festival awards.
“The film defied categorization,” she said.
Eventually, Arau and Arizmendi started thinking about making a feature-length
film, but found difficulty when trying to sell the idea to U.S. movie
companies.
“Hollywood loved the idea without really understanding it,”
Arizmendi said.
Finally, Mexican film company AltaVista Films offered to help make a
feature-length film out of the short film.
“A Day Without a Mexican” is the first film made entirely
in the United States for an American audience by a Mexican film company,
she said.
Marketing the movie was another exercise in novelty, according to Arizmendi.
She said presenting the movie as mainstream, rather than solely for Latino
audiences, was a challenge. Agencies had to be instructed that “you
don’t need tacos all over the screen” to appeal to crossover
audiences, including Latinos, she said.
The same defiance of categorization is affecting the film’s nomination
for Golden Globes and Oscars, Arizmendi said, but “the world looks
like this film.”
“Purity is boring and out-of-date,” Arizmendi said. “I
don’t have an identity crisis anymore—I’m Mexican and
American and so is this film.”
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