InSight

I spent yesterday morning in the nearby city of Pochutla with Miguel Ángel and Mariano, two young blind men that I met at Piña Palmera. Mariano works for the center and was giving Migue a tour of Pochutla and a lesson in urban orienteering. Lots of interesting dialouge and reactions from people in Pochutla made the shoot a very powerful experience in adition to its usefulness in telling these stories. I felt that Making Migue feel more comfortable in Pochutla was a good metaphor for what Mariano tries to do with Migue all the time.

In a similar vein, the more time I spend in Zipolite the more I realize that I am becoming part of the town. From the first day I spent here, from almost dying on death beach, I have felt a connection to the town. Until now though, it has always been internal. Now it is beginning to be externalized as people I don't know introduce themselves to me or I find myself welcome in places that I was not previously welcome. I remember the first time I went for a run on the beach and felt offended when I saw litter on the beach. People can sense that a bit, I think. It's funny how our intentions make us different people.

Two new characters

The more I try and make this film simple, the more complicated it becomes. It's as if there is always something just beyond my grasp smirking at me knowing that I can't comprehend it yet. But I see progress as well.

Today I met two important characters for the film- not just for background either- actual characters that I want to put in the film to tell this story. One is the oldest (and arguably the most hard-core) lifeguard in Zipolite. He told me that he used to do rescues with a buoy and that he swims (what I estimate to be) 10 km a day!
I also met the family of a young man that was a patient at Piña as a boy and then became a lifeguard in his twenties. The stories are amazing of him walking on his hands from his house to the beach to pull someone out of the waves and then come crawling out with the victim. I can not imagine what that must of looked like. In more ways than one, he acts as a bridge between important parts of this story So things here are always getting more interesting.

The General and the Specific

Lately, things have been moving very fast. I've started getting into interviews with some of the most important characters in the film, having established a general framework for the narrative arch and the important themes that I plan to touch on.

I recently realized something important partly on my own and partly by talking to my friend and compatriot Avishai, who has just arrived from DC and will be helping me out here for the next two months. I realized that whatever I present as Zipolite has the potential to be seen as a metaphor for Mexico. I think it is a natural tendency for us to draw parallels from the specific to the general when we see movies, and I feel like it is something that I could actually take advantage of. Why not make this film a comentary about Mexican society? All the powerful forces in this film (disabilities, tourism etc...) exist in other parts of the republic and their specific configuration in Zipolite says much more about the national culture than just this town. It is a culture of insensitivity towards people in wheelchairs that has resulted in there being almost no ramps in large cities or small towns ANYWHERE. Zipolite is an example of that.

Clearly Zipolite is a special place and I realize that. I wouldn't have chosen to make this film HERE if I didn't understand the uniqueness of this place. Nonetheless, Zipolite is a product of the people that made it and live in it.

Coming Soon

First version of a trailer. More to come.