LAFF 2012: REPORTERO



Sergio Haro in Reportero.

News to US

By Ed Rampell

In a day and age of print newspapers besieged by factors such as the emergence of the World Wide Web one weekly print newspaper is currently expanding its circulation. What is the secret to the success of Tijuana-based and U.S.-printed Zeta? According to Bernardo Ruiz, director of a new documentary focusing on this publishing phenomenon, Mexico’s high literacy rate and low Internet connectivity rate are important explanations for the success of this Tijuana weekly paper. But the most significant reason for its increase in readership is Zeta’s uncompromising content.

This success, alas, comes at a steep cost: While print papers may not be an endangered species in Mexico, honest reporters who boldly go where angels fear to tread, telling the facts about Mexico’s narco-war, gangs, corrupt policemen and politicians, are on that beleaguered nation’s endangered species list. The high price of this publishing triumph is the assassination of fearless journalists who put truth above survival, as Zeta’s hard hitting investigative reporting exposes the narco-traffickers currently corrupting and at war with Mexican society. There a byline can be tantamount to signing one’s own death warrant --even if the paper has resorted to using collective bylines “signed” by the entire editorial staff, instead of by an individual journo. (Although it’s more expensive, the paper is published at a plant in California then transshipped back across the border in order to maintain the paper’s editorial integrity.)

Reportero focuses on reporter/photojournalist Sergio Haro and the harrowing drug war he and Zeta’s other dedicated staffers set out to expose. While its subject matter is compelling, Reportero’s conventional nonfiction storytelling and slow pace somehow manages to render part of this 71-minute documentary dull. The contents could make for a great feature film; Oliver Stone’s upcoming Savages is set against the dramatic backdrop of Mexico’s amazingly violent drug wars. Nevertheless, for filmgoers interested in both narco-trafficking and freedom of the press, Reportero is required viewing.

And here’s three cheers for the brave Zeta-tistas in their courageous crusade to expose Mexico’s drug gangs and bought off police and politicos. Bravo, companeros! 


Reportero screens at the Los Angeles Film Festival: tonight, 7:50 p.m., Regal Cinemas.

  

 

  

  

 



FILM REVIEW: MISS BALA

Laura (Stephanie Sigman) in Miss Bala.

A girl in trouble can be a permanent thing

By Ed Rampell

Stylish cinematography, deft direction and edgy storylines characterize the New Mexican Cinema spearheaded by creative forces such as actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna, who, appropriately, share producing credits for this wave’s latest release north of the border, Miss Bala, Mexico’s official Oscar entry.

Mexico’s drug wars – which have reportedly claimed up to 50,000 lives in the past few years -- are providing grist for movie mills, from this crime noir directed and co-written by Gerardo Naranja to Oliver Stone’s upcoming Savages. In Miss Bala Laura Guerreo (stunning Sonora-born Stephanie Sigman) is a typical 23-year-old senorita in Tijuana who has nothing to do with crime and decides to enter the Miss Baja beauty pageant. This leads to her unintentionally becoming ensnared in extremely violent gang warfare that pits the ironically named La Estrella (“The Star”) gangsters against the DEA, the Federales and more, with the hapless, helpless Laura caught in the crossfire.

During her ordeal, which includes bombings, trafficking, kidnapping and gunplay galore, the terrified Laura is often curiously passive. At times it seems as if this innocent bystander doesn’t act on opportunities to escape, take the money and run, resist rape, etc. Maybe Laura fears that resistance is futile and means certain death? Perhaps Laura and her inner paralysis symbolizes the law abiding Mexican masses who are caught up in this criminal tidal wave, overwhelmed and unsure as to what to do and how to react?

Throughout the trials and tribulations they visit upon her, rather amazingly, gang chief Lino Valdez (Noe Hernandez) and his fellow gangbangers protect the embattled Laura. They also override the rejection of her beauty contest application, paving the way for the lovely Laura to compete. Why? There’s a method to their madness, which in the interests of avoiding plot spoilers your mum’s-the-word reviewer won’t reveal here. However, suffice it to say that the title of the film, Miss Bala -- which translates into English as “Miss Bullet” -- seems to ironically comment on the Miss Baja beauty pageant, and perhaps on the state of beleaguered Mexico’s tourism industry. (Although I must say that I visited the Riviera Maya near Cancun last year and saw no signs of the drug wars in that part of the country.)

In addition to Sigman's bewildered, perplexed, put-upon performance and sensuous presence as a senorita in peril, what I enjoyed most about Miss Bala is its scintillating cinematography. Mátyás Erdély’s camera frequently moves, evoking what is the essence of motion pictures, moving pictures, movies: Movement at 24 frames per second. However, this director of photography’s camerawork is never frenetic, nor is Miss Bala’s violence mindlessly gratuitous, unlike the cinematography and violence in, say, The Adventures of Tintin. I suspect that Steven Spielberg completely pummeled all of the charm out of Herge’s comic strip, just as he vandalized James M. Barrie’s Peter Pan with another overblown, pointless production in 1991. For a fraction of Mr. Spielberg’s budget, Senor Naranja has created a far superior action flick minus 3D imagery, which captures a moment in time when much of a nation is at war with itself, fuelled by drugs and their buyers in El Norte.

Miss Bala is one of the best, most exciting crime pictures I’ve seen since last year’s Congo-set Viva Riva! Mexico’s cinema has become so hot that even Will Ferrell is getting into the act, starring in the forthcoming genre spoof Casa de mi Padre -- with, but of course, the protean Bernal and Luna. The Mexican cinema has come a long way since Wallace Beery starred as Pancho in the 1934 Hollywood-made, Mexico-shot Viva Villa! which recently played on a double bill at the New Beverly Cinema with the Paul Muni, Bette Davis 1939 classic Juarez, and were presented by Hispanic film historian Luis Reyes. Viva Mexico’s film revolution!