Mojados - Through the Night
by Tommy Davis
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Guapo, Oso, Tigre, ViejoDirector: Tommy Davis
Brand: Vanguard Cinema
Writer: Tommy Davis
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 65 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-07-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Model: VF5304
Studio: Vanguard Cinema
Product features:
- A stunning documentary filmed over the course of ten days, following four men into the world of illegal border crossing from Mexico to United States. Alongside Bear, Tiger, Handsome, and Old Man, director Tommy Davis takes a 120 mile cross-desert journey that has been traveled innumerable times by nameless immigrants who - like the four young migrants from Michoacan, Mexico - all had a simple drea
Movie Reviews of Mojados - Through the Night
Movie Review: A humanizing portrait of a dehumanizing problem
Summary: 5 Stars
Tommy Davis' first feature-length documentary casts light on a major problem in America today: illegal immigration. It is an economic problem, insofar as the US economy depends upon cheap illegal labor. It is a human rights issue, insofar as thousands die and more suffer every year entering the US in search of a better life. And it is a political problem, insofar as making the borders more, less, or equally porous is opposed by some faction or another.
That what unfolds on screen is illegal, genuinely dangerous, and previously unseen by anyone but those who have made the journey, gives the film the irresistible allure of transgression, risk, and voyeurism. Davis' hushed narration throughout the film conveys the mortal seriousness of the subject. And the music of Sin Panache fits each scene like a glove, giving voice to the emotions along the way.
The news clip toward the end is a masterful touch, highlighting how very common such events are. The impersonal newscast contrasts sharply with the very personal film, as if Davis is criticizing the cold manner in which the issue is normally depicted.
Davis' film is not propaganda, nor is it one-sided, as some xenophobes have claimed. It has won so many awards because it is a timely, heartfelt portrait showing the human face of a previously impersonal political issue. Davis should be commended for bravely highlighting an all too ignored issue - and all the more for doing it so well.
Summary of Mojados - Through the Night
A stunning documentary filmed over the course of ten days, following four men into the world of illegal border crossing from Mexico to United States. Alongside Bear, Tiger, Handsome, and Old Man, director Tommy Davis takes a 120 mile cross-desert journey that has been traveled innumerable times by nameless immigrants who - like the four young migrants from Michoacan, Mexico - all had a simple dream for a better life. Fighting dehydration and exhaustion while evading the U.S. Border Patrol through sub-zero temperature darkness of night, filled with barbed wire, brutal storms and the ever-present confrontation with death, they endure unimaginable hardship that is reality for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who make a similar journey into the United States every year.System Requirements:
"Mojados." The English translation is "wetbacks," referring to workers from Mexico who illegally cross the border into the United States in order to earn money to send to their families back home. Their stories are, for the most part, little known and little regarded, but with Mojados - Through the Night, director-writer Tommy Davis sheds some unusually personal light on this shadowy world. Davis managed to persuade four young men--Guapo (Handsome), his brother Viejo (Old Man; he?s all of 26), Oso (Bear), and Tigre (Tiger)--to let him accompany them as they leave their homes, head north toward the Rio Grande, and then cross over into Texas. The trip is over a week long, with more than its share of hardships (enduring cold nights and sweltering days, drinking contaminated water and eating moldy bread, climbing barbed wire fences and sleeping on muddy ground), uncertainty, and fear of capture by the U.S. Border Patrol. And yet it?s relatively uneventful, or so it seems. There?s little drama here; the four men just doggedly move on, with no map, dwindling supplies, and a vague plan of finding another immigrant to stay with before scattering to Austin and elsewhere. They don?t all make it; but among those don?t, their almost matter-of-fact willingness to go through it all again is remarkable. Davis, who narrates in a kind of conspiratorial whisper, is sympathetic to the mojados (he also interviews a Texas rancher and a few Border Patrol officers); but in taking the personal approach, his hour-long film mostly avoids the highly flammable issue of illegal immigration. Bonus features include the director?s commentary track, and half an hour of extra footage. --Sam Graham
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