I came across a film a few months ago called Fandango at the Wall. It caught my eye because I saw that it featured Latin jazz artist Arturo O’Farrill, who I’ve seen in concert.
The film, which can be seen on-demand on HBO, is an exploration and a tribute to a music genre known as jarocho -- a 300-year old style of folk music from the Veracruz region of Mexico. It’s a beautiful form of storytelling that includes improvisation – a key aspect of my favorite music, jazz.
Director Varda Bar-Kar follows O’Farrill as he tours Veracruz with Jorge Francisco Castillo, the organizer of the annual Fandango Fronterizo Festival, which unites people on both sides of the Tijuana-San Diego border through music. We get to know some of the jarocho masters, humble and warm musicians who blend storytelling and poetry with music that derives from indigenous, Spanish, and African traditions.
I was captivated by the music – which is simultaneously simple and complex.
The film finishes with footage from the annual Fandango at the Wall, with musicians and audience literally on both sides of the border, separated by fencing that could not block out the music and its soul. It was especially appropriate, I think, when it was filmed during the hate-filled anti-immigrant rhetoric of the previous U.S. administration. But although the former president is gone from office, much of the hate and prejudice unfortunately still exists. This film helps form a hopeful bridge.
Photo at right: Arturo O'Farrill at The Wall
I connected with the director via email several weeks ago. I asked her why she made this film.
“When the former president started vilifying Mexicans and treating refugees like criminals, separating families and locking children in cages, I recognized his rhetoric as a false narrative fostering hatred and division--a narrative that could only lead to pain and suffering. I had to do something about it,” she wrote. “I decided I would make a film with musical elements. It was right at this time that a friend of mine, a fellow filmmaker, sent out the word that she had a friend who was looking for someone to film a music festival at the United States-Mexican border. I responded immediately and was soon on the phone with Producer Kabir Sehgal who has partnered with Producer Doug Davis. As he described his and Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra Founder Arturo O'Farrill's vision of recording an album at Fandango Fronterizo, we started to riff about what a film about this project could be. Our visions were fully aligned and within three weeks, I was in Tijuana meeting Jorge Francisco Castillo, founder of Fandango Fronterizo and starting to film.”
I also asked her what thoughts she hopes to leave with viewers?
“Appreciation for Mexico's deep and beautiful son jarocho culture and people. A desire to learn more about Mexico and go there one day. An understanding that by getting to know people who are different from us, who come from different cultures, we can enrich our lives and transcend divisions. The insight that building walls does not serve the greater good and that by breaking down walls and building bridges we come to recognize our common humanity. The belief that it is possible to achieve harmony between nations and a more prosperous, harmonious and peaceful world.”
I encourage you to watch this film. I think it helps accomplish the goals Varda Bar-Kar set out to achieve. Thanks, Varda, for taking us on this wonderful musical and cultural journey.
Here's a link to the trailer...30 seconds