01 · 19 · 07

“We’re not blaming anybody; we only try to expose the apparatus that allows impunity to reign.” José Antonio Cordero

Clara Sánchez

Bajo Juárez, la ciudad devorando a sus hijas, by José Antonio Cordero and Alejandra Sánchez (Official Selection, Sundance Film Festival) will have its debut Saturday, January 21st, at 6:30 pm, at the Holiday Village Cinema IV. This documentary feature takes up the work of Alejandra Sánchez and her 2001 short film on the same subject Ni una más. Bajo Juárez (Honorary Mention / Special Titra Award, Morelia International Film Festival) talks about the hundreds of women who have been murdered or have disappeared along the Mexico/U.S. border. The film is made up of interviews with government officials, the victim’s family members, and police officers. 

Interview with José Antonio Cordero.  The opinions expressed in the interviews are very extreme. How did this make you feel at the end of the day? While we were making the film, I tried to adopt a rational stance; but the deeper meaning of it all finally caught up with me as I was editing. Intuition guides you through the first steps, through the first interviews and takes. In a work of fiction, everything is figured out beforehand; in a documentary, things develop in a more natural, spontaneous way. I cried and got really angry while editing the film, and later came back to the film’s origin…I realized I’m just a spokesman and that my job is to convey all this material in a rational, logical, and also emotional way.  

What’s it like to face such “incompetent officials”, as you yourself have called them, that say outrageous things such as “Joan of Arc was the first Mexican woman to fight for her rights to education”? We had the feeling that they weren’t answering our questions or they were being evasive. And at first we got angry, but then we realized that they not only avoided our questions but also said a whole bunch of nonsense, which made everything more dramatic.  

Which of the segments was the hardest to edit?Probably Gaudencia’s story, the young woman from Veracruz, because she slowly became part of the film and her job was to convey what everyday life is like in Juarez: a woman going to work, falling in love, wanting to get married and just being alive and living. It as the last of the pieces to fall into place, and we decided to put it in because it was a way of creating contrast with the rest of the film.   

What gave you the idea of explaining topographic objects within animations?Andrés Villalobos, a wonderful digital artist, made them. We thought of including them for the benefit of the people in the audience (including Mexicans) who are not quite sure where Ciudad Juarez is exactly: it sounds far a away, but a lot of people don’t know its precise location. Also, to illustrate our point: we speak about Chiapas, so its important to see how far away this state is from Chihuahua…its really absurd for David, the scapegoat, to be in jail. It makes no sense. The animations also serve to pinpoint the pieces of land where bodies have been found. As I’ve said, we’re not pointing fingers, but we do want speak out about limits. One of the accusations is precisely that: landowners don’t want to find out what’s going on; they even sweep their properties and with this they eliminate the evidence. 

Did you get in touch with any of these landowners?No. Not even Diana Washington, the journalist, who specializes in these subjects, has been able to speak to them.  She&rsquo