BORDER CAMEO
2016 - 

A supercut compiling representations of the border-crossing from major films and television shows, as well as representations gathered from found home videos and informational/instructional films.

Throughout its many cameos, the crossing (as site and process) is depicted as a stage for a dramatic and/or comical game of cat and mouse, a contrived constant pursuit, which revolves around near captures and repeated escapes.

At the same time, the border becomes a tourist attraction for visitors to the city of Tijuana who document it in their home videos as an unfamiliar site and alien experience.

The resulting juxtaposition between these sources -- oscillating between drama and dullness, myth and anecdote, history and memory, fantasy and everyday experience -- contends with the possibility that the border is never just one or the other, but both simultaneously.
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The cut below from this ongoing archival project was shown on the final weekend of the screening series Escalas Fronterizas, at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.