Raul Cardenas Osuna

If necessity is the mother of invention, then Tijuana is where she gave birth and raised her kid. A city that rejects entropy, Tijuana constructs its own rules. Its denizens negotiate the chaos with fierce independence, ingenuity and a gift for improvisation. Frontier Life is a feature-length documentary that explores beyond Tijuana's Sin City heritage, beyond the aura of menace cultivated by the mainstream media, and searches for the heart and identity of a city that is much more than a cantina-strewn throwback to the Old West. This film does not set out to valorize or condemn what it finds. It approaches Tijuana on its own terms, looking at the city not so much in relationship to the U.S., the border, or even other regions in Mexico, but rather from the inside, within its own context.

Tito is a film adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play. Embedded in contemporary Mexico, it discusses the logic of revenge - an omnipresent topic since the beginning of the drug war in 2006. The protagonists of the film are not characters of the play, but tell the story as witnesses, bystanders and neighbours. They do not take part in the events of the play, but are affected by its consequences. In their reflections and commentaries on the play, the fictitious story blurs with their experiences and the present situation in Camino Verde, one of the poorest and most violent districts of Tijuana.