BY ALEC HART. PARK CITY, UTAH USA (CINEMA MINIMA) — Last night, we went to the Holiday Village for the screening of the documentary IN THE PIT. Directed by Juan Carlos Rulfo, the film was about the workers building a freeway in Mexico City. The film was “the bomb” because they didn’t get all preachy about how hard their lives were or how dangerous it was. It just tried to capture moments in the guys lives. There was a short guy who was always happy, even when it was raining on him. Another guy was always talking crap at the rest of the other workers but then you found out he’d lost everything and went from a wallet full of money to making $5 a day. All of the guys had nicknames. They called one guy “Shrek” because he was a big guy. The way they made the film, you understood what it was like to be a worker in Mexico City and how corrupt things are there.
The composer, Leo Heiblum, was at the Q&A and he said that the entire soundtrack was made from the sounds of the work site and work area. The composer had always wanted to make a soundtrack using only natural sounds. Director Rulfo did not know this when he went to the composer and told him he wanted a soundtrack using natural sound only. For the beats, they used the large and small jackhammers. It was good because you could feel the rhythm of the city and the rhythm of their lives.
Director Rulfo had this to say about making documentary films in his country, “In Mexico it is not easy to get money for documentary films. Everybody tells you if you are doing a film or a movie, and finally they ask you”hey men when are you going to make a film, a real film.” At that moment I don’t know what to say. I believe documentary film-making is the best thing. And I say that because I didn’t start to make a narrative fiction film, but it doesn’t matter. I believe this is the way to make movies because I’ve learned to do it this way. Filmmaking is the combination of all the opportunities you can find to change the world into a cinematic phenomena; it doesn’t matter if it is dock or fiction. This genre has given me the chance to experiment, because nothing is planned and scenes aren’t set up. A direct, spontaneous relationship is established, which really puts your creativity to the test. Life’s characters are much more powerful than any I could ever create myself.”
I recorded the Q&A for IN THE PIT following the screening. You can download it and listen to it to hear more about the film. This was one of my favorite films of the festival.
