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El Mojado Danny Lyon El Mojado, 1974, New Mexico, color, 14 minutes [The Wetback] English and Spanish with subtitles, a portrait of a hard-working undocumented laborer from Mexico produced by J.J. Meeker. "It's like being a hunter, but you're stalking human beings, and that's a lot more fun." -- Border Patrol Officer "El Mojado
is about my best friend in New Mexico, an undocumented worker
from rural Chihuahua. . . His name is Eddie and I soon came to
regard him as a genius. Eddie could do anything, make anything,
fix any car or truck, and usually do it with scraps. We built
an adobe house together and every spring I would meet him near
the border and smuggle him past the border patrol into the United
States. He introduced me to the whole unbelievable world of 'illegal
aliens'." "Since his
skill in creating a flow of superbly composed images is great
enough to bring to mind Antonioni, his work is remarkably effective
in making its point." |