Panel discusses impact of movie “Sicario” on Borderland
This weekend’s national release of the movie “Sicario,” depicting the drug war in the Borderland, has many talking about the continually poor perception of the El Paso/Juarez area.
After watching the movie Sunday afternoon, a group of panelists discussed the images in the film Sunday night at the West Side Regional Command Center. The discussion was the idea of City Rep. Peter Svarsbein.
Some called “Sicario” a missed opportunity, while another member of the panel described it as “a superficial treatment of a very complicated subject that we live every day.”
“I do think that people’s images, especially of Juarez, are not going to be approved,” Dr. Richard Pineda, director of UTEP’s Sam Donalson Center, said after seeing the movie, in which El Paso/Juarez plays only a small part. “I think in every case that a story is glamorizing the circumstances of what’s going on, I think the impact of that always has the potential to create problems.”
Svarsbein said it’s nothing new that the Borderland was portrayed poorly.
“It’s not just one movie,” Svarsbein said. “We’re looking at a constant portrayal, a narrative established at the border. You look at breaking bad, you look at the bridge … They portrayed this region, between El Paso and Juarez, referring to Juarez as the beast, which was probably hurtful for people on both sides of the border.”
Katie Siegel, who also saw “Sicario” Sunday night, moved to El Paso from Boston nine months ago.
“Before I moved here a lot of people were like be careful, you know,” she said.
ABC-7 showed her a tweet from a student manager of the UTSA football team, in town facing UTEP this weekend.
It read: “Where are we gonna eat? Ehh lets just order in so we don’t get murdered” good ole El Paso.
“Oh my god, that’s horrible!” Siegel said when read the tweet.
Some feel films like “Sicario” lead to comments like that.
“I do feel like the movie sort of portrayed Juarez/El Paso sort of in a negative light,” Siegel said. “I kind of felt like it was in the villain in the movie a little bit. This discussion, that’s what needs to happen and that’s how change comes.”
Added Pineda: “The best strategy is exactly this, to have a conversation about it, not to bemoan the film, not bemoan the creative industries, but to think about how those kind of images are significant for how we think about the border. I think that’s why a conversation like this is important.”
The UTSA student manager did quickly apologize for his tweet, calling it “inconsiderate.”
Monica Ortiz Uribe, a journalist who covers the border, perhaps summed up the film best, stating during the discussion that it “Exceeded my expectations for disappointment.”
