[interview] Cary Fukunaga – Sin nombre

The Blog Of the Film offers a transcript of the evening’s special Sin Number last September 15 at the UGC Ciné Cité les Halles, Paris – a special thank you to Cinefriends – in the company of director, Cary Fukunaga. The film will be released on our screens on the 21st of October next.

Facilitator

Sin Number will be released in cinemas on 21 October. It is a film that has been awarded several times. Especially at Sundance. It took the prize for best director and a few days ago he had the chance to have the prize of the jury at the festival of Deauville. On this occasion there was, in Deauville, france, to receive the award from the hands of Jean-Pierre Jeunet ( president of the jury ), director of Sin nombre. It is his first film. I’m going to ask you to welcome the most beautiful of ways. Please welcome Cary Fukunaga.

Cary Fukunaga

Good evening.

Has

In addition you have a lot of luck because he speaks French very well.

C. F.

They are going to be disappointed.

Has

I do not believe ! Tell us a little bit of the film. How you came up with the idea of the first film on this subject serious and hard at the same time ?

C. F.

Simply : I made a short film. It was a true story of a group of illegal immigrants that passed in Texas in 2003. I made a short film on the subject. When I was doing research, I learned that the immigrants from central America, traveling through Mexico was a lot more difficult and dangerous than crossing the border between the United States and Mexico.

And before that, I wasn’t aware of that. I didn’t know that it was difficult for people who came from countries south of Mexico. I said to myself that if one day I had the opportunity to make a feature film, I will do as the theme of the journey of the people of Central America.

And, in fact, the short film has been reported by price [… ]. Like this I have had the opportunity to write a feature-length film. And there I made the acquaintance of Amy Kaufman who became the producer. Before being a producer, she has worked with Focus Features, the independent studio in the United States. She showed them the script and they liked it. They asked me if I wanted to make the film with them. I said : “Why not “… And finally we made the film in 2007. As ac

Has

I learned that you had chosen to go on location and do part of the journey for you to realize the reality.

C. F.

Yes, in fact, between the night I made the short film and the night that I wrote the feature-length film, I did three months of research in southern Mexico. It was rather academic. At the beginning I did interviews with teachers of anthropology in Chiapas. And then with the heads of State security that have caused me to go into prisons and talk with the gangs. Also, I’ve done several interviews in the stations in the suburbs. There are freight trains where immigrants are concentrated as you’ll see in the film tonight. I’ve done hundreds of interviews to listen to stories and finally, after 3 weeks of research like this, I have decided to climb on the roof of the trains. This is not a passenger train, it is a freight train, and I traveled with a group of 700 immigrants and across the State of Chiapas.

Has

And the film was released in the United States or in Mexico ?

C. F.

Yes. It is released in the Usa in march and then to Mexico the same week of the swine flu [ editor’s note : influenza A] and this week there, going to the cinema… it was really deadly, so… of course it was difficult to get entries. This was not a great success. I hope that in France we will have more.

Has

Listen to this starts very well. Thank you so much Cary.

Interview by Alexandra for The Blog Of the Film.

You can find the critical Sin Number to this address.