To the Other Side

To be screened at 3rd Music and World Documentary Film Festival 19th - 22nd March 2009.

reż. Natalia Almada, ’66 min.
Al Otro Lado begins in Sinaloa, the drug capital of Mexico and birthplace of Los Tigres del Norte and Chalino Sanchez, two of the most famous corrido musicians. From the Sierra Mountains where opium and marijuana grow in abundance, down to the Sea of Cortez, where contraband is trafficked north in fishing boats, we look at the economic crisis that forces so many like Magdiel to turn to drug trafficking, or to risk their lives crossing the
border illegally into the United States. Through the regional corrido music that takes its roots from medieval ballads and has the edgy grit of gangsta rap, we travel from Sinaloa north across the border to the streets of South Central and East L.A., the same journey taken by millions of illegal immigrants, tons of narcotics and even corrido music.