Maquilapolis
Encyclopedia
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
by directors/filmmakers Vicky Funari and Sergio De La Torre
Sergio De La Torre
Sergio De La Torre is a Mexican photographer, filmmaker and performance artist who teaches photography and film at the University of San Francisco. De La Torre is originally from the Tijuana/San Diego border and migrated to San Francisco...
. The word Maquilapolis is a play on one Spanish and one Greek word.
- Maquiladoras: massive sweatshops just across the border between MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
and AmericaUnited StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
operating in a free trade region. - PolisPolisPolis , plural poleis , literally means city in Greek. It could also mean citizenship and body of citizens. In modern historiography "polis" is normally used to indicate the ancient Greek city-states, like Classical Athens and its contemporaries, so polis is often translated as "city-state."The...
: city.
The film depicts the struggle of a few Tijuana
Tijuana
Tijuana is the largest city on the Baja California Peninsula and center of the Tijuana metropolitan area, part of the international San Diego–Tijuana metropolitan area. An industrial and financial center of Mexico, Tijuana exerts a strong influence on economics, education, culture, art, and politics...
n women to balance life working in these factories with their struggle for justice in the system that governs their place of work. American filmmakers brought together a few women who filmed the majority of the film as a diary of their day to day existence and struggles.