Movie has 2012 wrong, says Canadian archaeologist

Kenneth Turan reviews "2012," the latest disaster movie portraying the end of the world. The movie is directed by Roland Emmerich, who seems to be stuck on the same theme, after movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" and "Independence Day."

"2012" is based on a premise apparently laid out in an ancient carved monument found in the Mayan region, which covers the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico and parts of Central America. The region has been home to the indigenous Maya people since 900 BC.

But Canadian archaeologist Kathryn Reese-Taylor, who teaches at the University of Calgary, says in a statement that although the monument, called the Tortuguero Monument Six, refers to the date Dec. 21, 2012, it is not an end-of-the-world prophecy. She says the translation of the text essentially says that something will occur on Dec. 21, 2012 and that it will be similar to something that occurred on another date in the past.

"We don’t know what that past occurrence was or what the future occurrence will be. At no point do any of the Maya texts actually prophesize the end of the world," she said. Reese-Taylor says that the prophecy has never meant the end of the world among the Maya people and that it is North Americans who have created this interpretation.

“The idea of a Maya prophecy emerged in the 1970s when North American journalists and writers began to cherry-pick ideas from the Maya, Aztec and Hopi cultures and created what they now call the Maya prophecy.”

Looks like Hollywood's creative license is at work again.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Dole withdraws lawsuit against Swedish filmmaker

The Associated Press reports that Dole Food Co. is withdrawing a defamation lawsuit against a Swedish filmmaker after complaints in Sweden that it was trying to limit free speech.

Dole had sued filmmaker Fredrik Gertten for showing the documentary "Bananas!" despite a court ruling that the case on which the film was based had been part of a massive extortion plot against the company.

The documentary shows the alleged plight of Nicaraguan workers who say they were made sterile by a pesticide used at Dole banana plantations during the 1970s.

Dole's lawsuit sparked protests in Sweden, where critics said the food company was trying to interfere with freedom of speech.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Filmmakers document consequences of U.S. immigration raid

Back in May 2008, U.S Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials rounded up 389 undocumented workers in the Agriprocessors Inc. kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa. The raid was the largest in U.S history.

Two weeks later, filmmakers Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan started filming "In the Shadow of the Raid," a documentary film showing at the Morelia International Film Festival in Mexico. A 15-minute edit of the film was recently broadcast on PBS "Frontline's" website.

"In the Shadow of the Raid" delves into the consequences of the ICE raid for Postville and for some of the the migrants who were arrested and deported back to their homes in two rural villages in Guatemala.

Following the closure of the meatpacking plant, Postville businesses failed and livelihoods were destroyed.

In Guatemala, migrant Willian Toj returned to his wife and parents. Awaiting him was a massive debt that he accrued from his trip to the U.S. He had been working in the Postville plant for 20 minutes before the ICE raid.

Toj can barely earn enough to pay the monthly interest on the $7,000 debt, let alone get the funds to treat his mother's worsening cancer.

The tone of the documentary is observational rather than preachy, in the same vein as other recent works such as "Los Que Se Quedan / Those Who Remain." The filmmakers try to reflect some of the realities that contribute to why so many Central Americans and Mexicans head to the United States. But there are no ICE officials interviewed, no legal redresses sought. Brosnan and Szymaszek focus on the people affected by the raid, and the resulting film is a photographic testament to a sad reality.

Watch the video for more.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City.

Video: An interview with Jennifer Szymaszek and Greg Brosnan, directors of "In the Shadow of the Raid." All non-interview material courtesy of Szymaszek and Brosnan. Video interview by Deborah Bonello.

Guerrilla filmmaking, Dominican style

It isn't easy making a movie in the Dominican Republic. When Michael Mann tried shooting part of "Miami Vice" there in 2005, a gunfight broke out near the film set, prompting costar Jamie Foxx to leave the country and forcing further filming to Miami.

The filmmakers who made "La Soga," which recently earned several standing ovations at the Toronto International Film Festival, managed to finish their movie without anyone being killed, though they do have colorful stories, which include hiring a machete fighter to handle security. As "La Soga" director Josh Crook put it: "Our motto when we wrapped each day was, 'We didn't die!' "

As it turns out, "La Soga" isn't just the best film from the Dominican Republic ever to play in Toronto. Apparently, it's also the only Dominican film ever to play there. I'd say it was worth the wait. Even though the Dominican Republic is best known for spawning baseball players, judging from "La Soga," the country could be a potential goldmine for actors and filmmakers as well, writes Patrick Goldstein.

Read more here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

French filmmaker who made documentary on gangs is killed in El Salvador

Christian Poveda, a French filmmaker and photographer who recently made a documentary about the Mara gangs in El Salvador, was shot dead Wednesday in Tonacatepeque, a rural region north of the capital, police said. He had been shot in the head, reports the Associated Press.

His documentary, "La Vida Loca," which we covered here on La Plaza, showed the hopelessness of life for the thousands of gang members living in El Salvador.

Poveda was a strong critic of policies used by the governments of El Salvador and the U.S., which he saw as having strengthened the gang networks.He described the members of the violent gangs that he filmed as "victims of society."

He spent 16 months shooting the film in San Salvador, and said during an interview with La Plaza this year,  “I knew right from the start that I couldn't film just one character."

“Firstly, they get bored after a couple of months and don't want to be filmed anymore. Or two, they get put in jail, or they get killed.”

We'll be bringing you more on this story, but meanwhile you can watch Poveda talk about "La Vida Loca" in an interview in April.

** Updated: Read our full report on this story here.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Oliver Stone's new documentary heads 'South of the Border'

In his new documentary "South of the Border," Oliver Stone is shown warmly embracing Hugo Chávez, nibbling coca leaves with Evo Morales and gently teasing Cristina Elizabeth Fernández de Kirchner about how many pairs of shoes she owns, writes Reed Johnson.

These amiable, off-the-cuff snapshots of the presidents of Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina, respectively, contrast with the way these left-leaning leaders often are depicted in U.S. political and mass-media circles. That's especially true of Chávez, the former military officer turned democratically elected socialist leader, who has become the ideological heir apparent to Fidel Castro and the bête noire of Bush administration foreign policy officials.

In setting out to make "South of the Border," which is scheduled to have its world premiere this week at the Venice Film Festival, Stone, a lightning-rod figure himself for the better part of three decades, says he wanted to supply a counterpoint to the prevailing U.S. image of Chávez, who's frequently represented in stateside op-ed pieces and political cartoons as a bellicose dictator-cum-comic opera figure.

Read on here.

See more posts here on film, Venezuela, Argentina, Bolivia and culture.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Filmmaker tracks child migrants' dangerous journeys

Reed Johnson reviews "Which Way Home," a documentary by Rebecca Cammisa that screens on HBO today and screened at the Los Angeles Film Festival this year.

"It was the anguish of a 9-year-old child that made Rebecca Cammisa vow to press on.

"When the filmmaker first met the Honduran boy named José at a detention center in southern Mexico, he was alone, scared and crying. He was one of an estimated tens of thousands of Latin American children who annually try to cross illegally into the United States, many by riding the tops of railroad freight cars, most in search of work or missing parents.

"For many, the journey ends badly, if not tragically. Menaced by predatory smugglers and corrupt police, the children (the majority from Mexico and Central America) must contend with dodgy weather, hunger and the constant danger of falling off the trains and being killed or losing limbs.

"Some travel hundreds of miles only to be intercepted by law enforcement agents and deported home. When Cammisa filmed José, he was an underage refugee adrift in an international legal limbo."

Read the rest of the review here, and here are more posts on immigration and film.

-- Deborah Bonello, in Mexico City

Video: "Which Way Home" raises questions about cross-border immigration policies. Credit: HBO

Mexican director Inarritu to head Tokyo film festival jury

One of Mexico's most respected, behind-the-camera film talents, director Alejandro González Iñárritu, is to head the jury at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October.

Quoted on the festival's website, Iñárritu says, "New and exciting voices are emerging from different parts of the planet within the world of cinema. Those who will change the rules and those who have already enriched our vision with their films need spaces of resistance to the flawless distractions that sometimes today’s culture offers. . . . Japan’s culture and film traditions have had a personal impact on me and inspire in me respect and admiration. I am honored to preside at the 22nd TIFF and I am looking forward to finding new voices that will generate in us catharsis and reflection."

Iñárritu's face-slapping debut movie, "Amores Perros" -- you can see the trailer for it here -- won the Grand Prix award at the festival in 2000.

You can read about Iñárritu and some of his fellow Mexican filmmakers here in this article by Reed Johnson, "A Bond Beyond Borders," from October 2006.

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City

Photo: Alejandro González Iñárritu. Credit: Fernando Franco / Paramount Classics

Human rights hit the big screen in second film festival

Mexico's second annual human rights film festival, supported by a number of organizations here including the Mexico branch of Amnesty International, the Ambulante documentary film project and Mexico City's Human Rights Commission, opens at the end of the week.

The series of documentary and fiction features, as well as short films, come from 23 countries and will run on screens Aug. 14-20 in two of the city's Cinepolis cinemas. The cinema chain's Fundacion Cinepolis is the event organizer.

The mystery of Lucrecia Martel's 'The Headless Woman'

Mark Olsen writes, for the Los Angeles Times:

It's an all-too-familiar situation: You're driving along, slightly distracted, and then a bump in the road brings that sickening feeling.

So begins 'The Headless Woman,' the third feature from Argentine writer-director Lucrecia Martel, opening in New York City on Wednesday and in Los Angeles on Sept. 4. A woman (played with masterful opacity by Maria Onetto) just keeps driving, and as the film unfolds it becomes increasingly unclear as to whether she hit something (a dog? a young boy?). Nevertheless, Onetto's character becomes increasingly disconnected from her upper-middle-class life, having seemingly left behind something of herself on that dusty stretch of empty road.

Read his full article here.

See the trailer in the video above

-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City