Gabriella Garcia Pardo’s Fences Wins New Horizons Award for Most Promising American Documentary at Ji.hlava Movie Pageant sort About this undertaking, it focuses on one thing we barely discover however are very conscious of: the fence, which may defend or separate. Is dependent upon who you ask.
“It’s laborious to say whether or not they’re good or unhealthy, or we might simply create a world that erases all these strains. In addition they create a way of residence, and as somebody who’s all the time in search of a way of belonging, I can relate to that. sort.
Her dad and mom are Colombian, and he or she grew up in Miami, a spot “deeply rooted in borders and limits.”
“It is stuffed with immigrants from Central America, South America and the Caribbean, so this sense of being between areas is all the time very current. The roots of this movie must do with our relationship to the land and to one another. It is It is damaged in so some ways.
In “Fences,” she interviews quite a lot of individuals. Amongst them are Jason Valdez, director of the Wind River Tribe’s buffalo initiative, and members of the American Fence Affiliation.
“I did not need to create a shallow sense of heroes and villains, ‘cowboys and Indians,’ North and South. America is a spot that may be simply lowered to stereotypes, sure, to strains, and that is consistent with the entire film. A pointy distinction.
She is attempting to make an “approachable” movie.
“I wished the viewers to have the ability to relate to those individuals. In one of many storylines, we had been following a bunch of people that had been gathering barbed wire. One among them [Delbert Trew] Runs the Satan’s Rope Museum. He and different fanatics like him have a deep love for his or her land and you may really feel it. However it’s exactly due to this contradiction that to ensure that them to have a house, it was violently taken away from others.
For Garcia Pardo and the individuals she talks to, fences symbolize violence and management, but additionally care.
“The human obsession with management, and creating rigidity the place it’s not mandatory, is attention-grabbing to me. There’s no level in attempting to attract straight strains on a curved panorama. We hold repeating this truth, and it’s simply too Ridiculous.
She is presently in search of broadcast companions in america and Europe to deliver “Fences” to film theaters, but additionally to cities with out movie festivals.
“I need individuals to snort collectively and really feel uncomfortable collectively. We wished to take an actual highway journey with this film, as a result of everybody’s life is surrounded by fences, it doesn’t matter what form they’re. It is set in america, However that is simply our framework: these limits and limits are common.
Over the previous few months, she nonetheless encountered some attention-grabbing tales.
“A fence building firm employed a bunch of men from Central America to construct a fence – six toes from the present fence, in entrance of an deserted stadium. What was the purpose? At first, they thought it was their job, however then we began Speaking about immigrants and what it meant for them to cross the border and are available to america,” she recalled.
“There’s a line within the trailer that claims, ‘They’re not going to make any extra land. Some individuals do, some individuals don’t.’ Their response to that’s, ‘That’s as a result of the wealthy don’t share with the poor. “You may discover quite a lot of opinions on the that means of those strains in our lives. One stated: “They’re for defense. “However who to guard?”
García Pardo can even discover the worry that accompanies individuals being pressured—or selecting—to actually cross strains.
“To me, it is trespassing, and it has a wealthy and interesting historical past. We’re all the time in search of characters who query boundaries in a transgressive approach,” she says, admitting that she expresses this “by the visible, the lively, the sensual.” Concern is a problem.
“It is a huge case about cornering. Some [Missouri] Hunters arrange ladders to cross from one aspect of public land to the opposite [navigating the checkerboard layout] The proprietor of personal land on one other nook is suing them for $7 million as a result of they crossed his airspace. He is attacking them in a really aggressive approach. Not with weapons, however by the authorized system.
“Fences” is produced by Jonna McKone and co-produced by Wenjing Xu. Sebastián Pinzón Silva serves as story marketing consultant and is scheduled to premiere in December 2026. mirror. Or attempt to discover solutions to questions she did not foresee.
“I’ve been requested, ‘Do you assume marriage is a fence?’ This film has the flexibility to make you fall down many, many rabbit holes,” she laughs.
“It simply goes to point out you ways robust these boundaries are, even with no piece of steel or wooden to symbolize the road.”
