Twenty-two years after his landmark debut "El Norte" brought the immigrant experience to Hollywood's consciousness, filmmaker and Imagen lifetime achievement award recipient Gregory Nava reflects on that film's continuing relevance, his career and upcoming pic "Bordertown," which marks the helmer's third collaboration with Jennifer Lopez.
On "El Norte": "You can get numbers and theories from newspapers and books, but a movie can put a heart and a soul and a face on the shadow. And that's what 'El Norte' was, a human drama, and a universal drama as well. People who are Latino like myself can see themselves and their journey celebrated. And others who are not Latino can see themselves in the story and relate, because it's a universal story. And I believe in the universality of the human experience."
On "Bordertown": "I wanted to make a movie about (the Juarez murders) to bring attention to it, to put pressure on the Mexican and American governments to do something about it. Thousands of women are being brutally raped and murdered in Juarez, which is right across the border with the United States, and no one is talking about it. I wanted to make a shocking, strong, suspenseful movie that would have people on the edge of their seats, like 'Silence of the Lambs,' except these serial killers are real. This is actually happening."
On politics in cinema: "I don't think of myself as a political filmmaker. And I don't think of myself as a Latino filmmaker. I think of myself as a storyteller first, and as a storyteller, I care about my community. I care about the world, and in my world you see a lot of injustice."
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