The Mexican Dream: Third Coast Presents Intimidad

Just across the border from McAllen, Texas, lies its ugly stepsister who stays locked in the basement: Reynosa, Mexico (pop. 500,000+). Reynosa does not fit the stereotype of Mexican border towns. With the exception of its relatively small market district and plethora of cheap dentists, it is a decidedly utilitarian, hard working, industrial city. Intimidad is an intimate portrait of two people who work there.

Both Cecy and her husband, Camilo, come from the small town of Santa Maria, in Puebla, and the film meets its characters as they wake for work in Maquiladoras (factories) in Reynosa. At 21, they have left their infant daughter, Loida, and come to the city in order to save money to buy land and build a house; the American Dream in Northern Mexico.

The film is appropriately no-frills, with a style that bounces off its home-video digital, and 16mm footage, as its Mansfield, Texas-based filmmakers follow them off and on for four years.

Originally screened for SXSW, (we liked it then, too), Intimidad is exactly that: a film about people in their private, personal struggles, and as such, is never preachy or over-dramatic. Intimidad's strength comes from the personalities of its stars who seem genuine, and sincere; it mirrors its subjects' attitudes about their plight. To be sure, their struggle is occasionally harrowing, and the filmmakers make that clear. But in the end, there is less editorializing than the average episode of a PBS news show, and the viewer feels a connection not just with the situation, but with the people who live it.

Watch the trailer after the jump.