Maquilapolis (city of factories)
Posted January 24th, 2008 by Intern
Bay area filmmaker Vicky Funari, (Live Nude Girls Unite!, Paulina) recently relocated to the Philadelphia area, will screen her film Maquilapolis (2006, 68 min, in Spanish with subtitles) which she made with Sergio De La Torre, factory workers in Tijuana, and community organizations in Mexico and the U.S. They collaborated on a film that depicts globalization through the eyes of the women who live on its leading edge. The workers did not just testify on camera, they became an integral part of creating their stories on film armed with cameras for video diaries, chronicle their struggles. The resulting film is informative and disturbing but also evocative and poetic.
Location(s)
Vicky Funari is a filmmaker whose work focuses primarily on the lives of working people and on the complex identities of today's culturally mixed and dynamic migratory populations. Funari produced, directed and edited the acclaimed non-fiction feature film PAULINA, which has screened in over 30 of the world's most prestigious film festivals, including Sundance, Locarno, Havana and Amsterdam.
Among numerous awards, PAULINA received a Grand Jury Prize at the 1998 San Francisco International Film Festival and Lifetime Television's Vision Award at the 1998 Hamptons Film Festival. PAULINA aired on the Sundance Channel in 2000.
Most recently, Funari co-directed and edited the documentary LIVE NUDE GIRLS UNITE!, a fierce and funny account of the first successful strippers' union in the country. This film premiered at the 2000 SXSW Film Festival, won a Golden Spire and the Audience Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival, enjoyed a national theatrical release, aired on Cinemax in 2001, and is now in home video release on both VHS and DVD.