Eye-opening film on border wall coming to McAllen

*Updated 9:50 a.m.

Ricardo Martinez took a break from his comfy job as a network television editor in New York to get a first-hand look at the state of the U.S.-Mexico border.

It wasn’t pretty.

The director of the The Wall, a new documentary about the controversial structure along our southern border, caught up with Festiva on the cusp of the film’s premiere Friday, July 17, at Cine El Rey in Downtown McAllen. Martinez talked about getting shot at along the border, witnessing for himself the casualties of bad politics and why he thinks his film can help.

• COMING FRIDAY OUR REVIEW OF 'THE WALL'
• CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE OFFICIAL TRAILER

THE WALL Screening & Director Q&A
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday
WHERE: Cine El Rey, 311 S, 17th St., McAllen
COST: $5 at the door
ONLINE: http://www.thewalldocumentary.com

What made you want to make a documentary about the border wall?

I grew up in the Bay Area, which is very progressive. So we grew up with a very progressive idea of Hispanics. I moved to New York City for college, and when I got up there, I realized that at that time, there was not a huge Mexican population like there was in California and, coincidentally, there was not the same kind of understanding of immigration in general. The entire issue of (illegal Mexican) immigration was very new to the New York area. So people’s personalities and perspectives were very new.

Particularly, what drew me specifically to the wall was I read in the news one day about the fence and that the signing of the bill was going to be coming up … and I was dumbfounded this was actually going to pass. Not only that it was an idea that (politicians thought) was going to work, but it was something that was already done and going to be signed into law.

Partly I was also kind of shocked at some of the responses of my co-workers, not at ABC or anything, but some of my co-workers I knew in television who were not from the border region and some of their thoughts on the idea of a fence.

A lot of people from New York, if they did know something about this, their opinions seemed a little old fashioned and a little behind. I wanted to show and explain what was going on at the border.

The border is such a complex place, and there are so many things going on. I needed to show that to people in the interior of the country. That’s where the real inspiration came out. To make the movie was to show the people in places like Iowa or South Carolina what the policies are doing and what life is like at the border.

What is your goal with the film then?

Every border town is so different.

I remember showing the trailer to a Dominican co-worker of mine here in New York and she looked at the shot of Nogales where you see the fence down the middle and you see America on one side and Mexico on the other and she looked at that and said, ‘Wow, I didn’t know they were that close like that.’

And I looked at her for a second because she’s a smart woman and was like, "Yeah. What did you expect? It’s our border. Did you think there was the Nile?”

I mean, there is a river, but even in the river parts you can see right over. But I believe that’s not just her. I think this is kind of symbolic of the bigger issue here.

Some people, the first thing they said was "Are you going to be OK going to Granjeno, Texas?" ... which is a town of retirees and veterans. It’s a beautiful town.

There are a lot of images we need to work on with the border.

There’s a lot of complexity. The film is a dialogue.

Well, in the Valley at least, people have been talking about it for a while. Are people just not listening?

I think if everybody knows about it and people stop listening, that probably means you have to start talking to more people. … I don’t come at this to preach at the converted. I’m trying to reach people who don’t care about this stuff. I want the middle ground. I want people who are for the fence. I want people to come and listen and say ‘let’s talk.’

This is not the easiest or safest subject to cover. Did you have any challenges?

There were several times and unfortunately in these times we talk about borders being a dangerous area, so I want to preface this with saying there are some great cities on the border that are very safe and very beautiful places.

We should be careful about the image because the economies in the border regions are hurting so badly from the image that the border is this unsafe border. That being said, we were in the desert filming for a couple of weeks at a time and we would film with the Minutemen. …

The funny thing about all this actually comes down to a story.
We get down to the border and we’re filming with the Minutemen and frankly nothings happening. We’re sitting there doing interviews, which are really kind of interesting, and they’re saying controversial stuff but nothing happening for the most part.

Meanwhile they’re telling us, oh there are thousands of immigrants, watch out, watch out, but nothings happening.

At this point, after this many days of nothing happening, we were making jokes, saying, "They’re not doing the greatest job over here because we’re seeing nothing."

All of a sudden, while we’re sitting there about to fall asleep, I just see this rock jump off the floor. And I hear a little noise. I look over, trying to figure out what that was about, and when I look back at the Minuteman, he was already getting up out of his seat to get behind the car with his walkie-talkie in hand.

It wasn’t just one rock that jumped, it was several and a few noises. And I look up and he’s talking on his microphone and says "That’s right. Code black. Shots fired."

And I’m just starting to put it in my mind and he looks at me and says "I would suggest you get behind the vehicle now, sir."

So we get behind the car and were basically shot at.

When you think about it later on, who was shooting at us in the middle of the night. They were probably messing with us as a joke. I mean, if a drug smuggler wanted to shoot us I think they really would have just shot us.

Tell me about walking through a medical examiner’s office in Arizona.

You can watch it on TV, see newspapers ... when you’re standing in front of a body that is bloated and been in the sun for a day and smells, it’s horrible. It’s a ghastly sight. It’s something unfortunately. It’s something people have to understand. People have to understand that policy is not working but the cost is not just costs that the other side says we’re spending money on. The cost is death. Whatever we do, enforcement or whatever the solution is, we can’t have that. Even the Minutemen agree to that.

This is not a liberal versus conservative issue, an open border versus closed border issue.

This is a human issue. I have no interest in exposing my politics. There are liberals who put in place bad policy.

There are conservatives who put in place bad policy. Let’s solve the problem. I don’t care how we do it, let’s work toward a solution.

I think what I hope will happen is that we re-discover what is happening on the border, what the border is like and what the policies are.

Do you agree with Martinez’s perspective on the border wall? Will new audiences help anti-border wall causes? Will you see The Wall? Tell us in a comment below.

Sandra Gonzalez covers features and entertainment for Festiva and The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4427.