Consider the notion of being separated from your family for decades, of having missed your father’s funeral and your child’s birthdays and graduations.
They were at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where García and Zabaleta had come to support Ewing, whose documentary “Detropia” was premiering.
We were ashamed to talk about our status, to tell people that we are in this country without documents, that we are living in the shadows,” García says.
Stunned and upset, Ewing emailed herself a note in the middle of the night with details from their conversation.
Eventually, they built a life in New York City and are now the proprietors of two Williamsburg restaurants, Mesa Coyoacán and Zona Rosa, where the couple express their longing for home through Mexican cuisine.
Although they pay taxes, support their community and employ American citizens, their immigration status remains uncertain.
All they have is the idea that politicians and the press have given us about what their experience is.
At first, the pair were terrified of exposing their life so publicly for the film, especially since many of their employees share their precarious immigration situation.
“It was a long and painful process,” Zabaleta says.
The more the director captured material in the present, the more she realized these scenes would best function as the film’s third act.
“I had to face the fact that this was better suited as a fiction film.
Determined to depict García’s and Zabaleta’s recollections and learn the craft of fiction storytelling, she brought in Mexican screenwriter Alan Page Arriaga.
It’s a storytelling technique that shares common ground with the work of “Nomadland’s” Oscar-winning director, Chloé Zhao.
Ewing also decided to use voice-over as a cinematic device to add emotional depth, taking her inspiration from director Terrence Malick, whose meditations on existence are at once naturalistic and dreamlike.
Most of the crew and top collaborators were Mexican, including producer Edher Campos, cinematographer Juan Pablo Ramírez and casting director Isabel Cortázar.
I am a white woman in Mexico making a film in Spanish.
being gay doesn’t matter as much but now he is an undocumented immigrant, so he is still just being at 50% of his potential as a person.
“If you’re playing Margaret Thatcher and we all know what Margaret Thatcher sounds like, maybe you should imitate Margaret Thatcher.
Eventually she gave in when the production moved to New York, but the meeting between Espitia and García wasn’t as fruitful as the actor imagined it would be.
The chemistry between Espitia and Vazquez is testament to Ewing’s casting intuition, especially because the actors didn’t know each other beforehand.
For Espitia and Michelle Rodriguez, an actress and comedian who plays García’s best friend and journey companion, Sandra, shooting the traumatic desert crossing was a charged watershed moment.
At some point while shooting that scene, Rodriguez had an epiphany and said, “This is happening right now somewhere on the border.
“To put myself in the situation of so many Mexicans, and so many Latinos, there’s no way for you not to feel moved and committed with this topic,” says Rodriguez, who is best known for her comedy and cherished the opportunity to play a complex character like Sandra.
“At some point Sandra and I put our lives in the hands of God because we didn’t think we were going to make it.
“The responsibility of playing this character wasn’t only about Iván,” adds Espitia.
“She made me feel my entire life again in an hour and a half: all of the emotions, frustrations, fears and smiles.
“Every relationship is complicated,” García says, “but we have fought together and we have tried to defeat the obstacles that sometimes bring us down.
Of all the things that make him feel powerless, what eats at García most is that he hasn’t seen his son in the 20 years since he came to the U.S.
Despite the countless disappointments, they have faith in the new administration and urge the president and lawmakers to see their contributions to their adoptive home.