A LINK TO A VIDEO ESSAY
This is a link to a little video that juxtaposes boy dancers expressing concepts — that are almost inexpressible in words — about the struggle to cross the Mexican border into the US. You will take from it what your experience suggests. I see group effort, struggle and danger in the night, the confusion of politics, violence and trauma, and death — grieving. I see extreme efforts, feats of bravery and skill, and brotherhood.
The video of these conceptualizing moves are interleaved with video of the real thing: people struggling to cross the border.
“Mexicans matched with NC” (7 Years Ago)
The version I see has no sound. This both makes it incomplete and secretive — as thinking about this effort to go north must always be — and somehow more sinister, more unexpected, since sound tracks often cue us how to think.
This composition was presented by Tim Barrus. I don’t know whether any of the boys were Mexican. NC stands for North Carolina.
