Mark Becker has been giving interviews about his latest documentary entitled "Romantico", an engaging and perceptive documentary about the travails of a father, who moonlights as a mariachi in San Francisco to make ends meet for himself and his family back in Mexico. Complications ensue for Carmelo Muniz Sanchez, the man in question. In a post-9/11/01 America he has to cope with the enhanced stigma of being an illegal immigrant, crossing the border into the U.S. Mr. Sanchez has to also deal with a string of setbacks, including his own affliction with diabetes. Still, he remains resolute, brave and optimistic. Lest the heading of this piece mislead you, "Romantico" is not about romance per se. When Mr. Becker's current interviewer points out that "Romantico" may mean the love that bad luck seems to have for Mr. Sanchez, Becker, the Massachusetts-born director, who now resides in New York City (following seven years in San Francisco) says, "that's a very interesting way of looking at it -- a good way of seeing it."
"Romantico" takes place over the course of three and a half years. "It's
definitely an evolution," said the filmmaker. "At the beginning of the
documentary you're first learning yourself [about Mr. Sanchez] and it's almost
like a growing relationship between you and the film subject. As I spent
more time with him, I felt as a filmmaker I could be more skilful at achieving
an intimacy over time." Becker, who has a developed a close friendship
with Carmelo Muniz Sanchez since the making of "Romantico" (which extends its
run in Northern California's Bay Area tomorrow, February 2 and various other
American cities) said that "the experience of watching the film mirrors in some
way my experience of making the film, that you start off with a character who .
. . you think is maybe like many guys out there that are of a certain color,
musicians, just like, you know, playing love songs to make a living. He's
somewhat removed from your existence in some way and then as you watch the film
you become closer and closer to him and soon you start to feel like you've maybe
internalized some of his sensibility . . . you might be seeing the world through
his eyes."
And that world is not through any rose-colored glasses.
Mexico has some vivid hues and brightness, but the world of Carmelo Muniz
Sanchez is tainted with the downs that inevitably accompany the ups of anyone's
life -- only it seems that Mr. Sanchez has experienced more downs than the
average person. The director hopes that Carmelo becomes someone that his
film's audience sympathizes with deeply -- like a friend of their own. At
this point Becker hastily underlines that he is under no illusions that the
audience will embrace Carmelo. "Maybe this is a stretch," Becker
says.
What is not a stretch is the depth of the journey that Mr. Sanchez takes.
It is a milestone. In a few short years, Carmelo has traveled many a mile
in shoes that a lot of people never get to wear. At one instant he is in
San Francisco entertaining restaurant patrons in that American city's Mission
District, the next he is in Mexico tending to his family, which though cohesive,
has been splintered by maladies that include a mother with diabetes and a
friend, Arturo, who is an alcoholic. Arturo is a fellow mariachi who
introduces Carmelo to the United States. They become very close, like
brothers. They entertain in San Francisco, sometimes making $100 in about
a week. While that may appear unimpressive to some, the income made in San
Francisco was vastly greater than what Carmelo Sanchez makes in Mexico. To
supplement his musical skills as a mariachi in Mexico, he also has is own
portable refreshment business, selling flavored snow-ice cones, and ice-creams.
For the uninitiated, mariachis are entertainers -- and many people in the world
seem to take for granted their status as people -- that they are put on earth
solely to entertain. Mr. Becker himself echoed this kind of conventional
wisdom when he said that patrons in restaurants waiting for their food are
sitting and "waiting for the song to be over." Even though this reality
remains, the director hopes that people will broaden their minds in their
approach to Carmelo when they watch "Romantico".
"You wouldn't know that this guy has so much to offer in terms of his outlook on
life, his own wisdom. Making the film . . . allows me to have the
experience of those revolutions you have when you spend time with people you
ordinarily wouldn't spend time with," Becker said. Having the emotional
contact with Mr. Sanchez was, the director said, "a privilege."
Filming "Romantico" exposed the director's own assumptions (and perhaps even
unconscious prejudices) about Carmelo, forcing Mr. Becker to confront his own
pre-conceived notions. He cites the time when in Mexico with Carmelo and
his family "and it was like, 'oh, he's like the sort of dad that's very capable
of affection. He's not at all guarded with his daughters.' Then when
we went to this wedding where it was a gig for him, he was the front of this
mariachi band and he was -- unlike in San Francisco, where he was second voice
to Arturo -- he was at home in Mexico, and he was in front of this mariachi band
and he was belting out his music. And that was a revelation. It was
like, 'oh, he's kind of the man here!' He was completely in his element
and in command of his soulfulness in a way that was really moving."
The director states that he had a "minor epiphany" when watching Carmelo at the
aforementioned gig. "I wanted to try as best I could when I edited it and
the audience could experience it. I wanted the audience to feel that
Carmelo was [really] back at home in Mexico, not just with his family, but in
his place of business, at work."
"Romantico" shows the many sides of a man in all his complexities, struggles and
joys. The events of "Romantico" are ups and downs, like life itself, and
Carmelo Muniz Sanchez takes us through an intimate journey via Mark Becker's
direction, that we won't soon forget.
"Romantico" continues in Chicago, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle and several
other American cities, and other overseas areas.
