| 28.01.2006 |
| http://www.greencine.com |
| Quelle: GreenCine |
| „The range in David D'Arcy's latest dispatch extends from the over-hyped to the under-hyped, from Little Miss Sunshine and The Darwin Awards to So Much So Fast and The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez. A quick note: a server move knocked us out for a while, but the "Park City Roundup of reviews from all over is once again being updated at least Daily. (...) Another look at a life taken away from a young man is The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez, a documentary by the Swiss filmmaker Heidi Specogna. José Antonio Gutierrez was a Guatemalan immigrant and a marine who became the first American to die in the war in Iraq in March 2003. When his body came back, the motivational official story came out from the Bush administration that Gutierrez fought adversity to be an American, and that he died giving something to his country. From this film we get the real story from those who knew Gutierrez. He was a street orphan from Guatemala City, a casualty of an earlier war between Indian rebels in that poor overcrowded country and an army assisted by the US in its campaign to crush them, whether or not civilians died, and hundreds of thousands did. We're taken from the streets of Guatemala City to the path northward to the US border (quite a few films this year have that border as theme and subject), and to Los Angeles, where José is homeless once again as he looks for work and finds shelter with foster families. Part of why he joins the Marines, a big part, is just to get a green card. We learn that thousands of immigrants are doing the same, putting their lives on the line, and sometimes giving their lives, so that they can remain legally in the US. All this is framed in an atmosphere in which illegal immigrants are almost as unpopular as Osama bin Laden. Several people have told me that they think The Short Life of José Antonio Gutierrez is the best film of the festival. It's surely one of the best. Heidi Specogna has reconstructed an inconspicuous life, the kind of life that used to be called "minor," without a single interview with Gutierrez, few records, and the recollections of those who knew him. Her research found plenty of people in Guatemala who would talk. It's striking how many people remember the boy with no family. The cherubic street kid, small for his age, who could see an immediate opportunity in front of him, was also a cheerful, talented young man who wanted to become an architect some day, once he got the documents and the money he needed to enroll somewhere legally. An acquaintance in Los Angeles remembers that he wanted to give something back to the country that was not yet his. Gutierrez certainly learned how to say the right things. He was good at flattering, too. This tale of the ultimate immigrant gamble - as if gambling with your life to cross the border wasn't enough - is not so new. In World War I, European immigrants from Italy, Ireland and Eastern Europe were told that if they joined the army, they would become citizens, although the threat of being hunted down and deported those days by the INS or anything like it was negligible. Many joined, and many died. There is another part of this film that is a glimpse into the sociology of the armed forces, which are often the last chance for those who can't find a job and can't afford an education, and certainly can't get a passport. The military at its lowest level is filled with immigrants, mercenaries fighting America's wars in the hope of becoming American. By the term mercenary, I don't mean ruthless and cold killing for a buck. I'm just suggesting that these cash-poor young men and women are paying a price for citizenship. It can be three years of their lives at war. It can also be their lives.“ Posted by dwhudson at January 28, 2006 02:58 AM |
