Flor de Muertos (2011)

Flor de Muertos (Flower of the Dead) examines the cross-cultural collisions regarding death along the US and Mexico border, commencing with the Mexican celebration of the Dia de los Muertos and ending with the All Souls Procession when 20,000 locals turn out in skull face to rattle through the streets of downtown Tucson, Arizona, to remember, honor, and dance with the dead. Flor de Muertos - the Aztec Marigold, 'Cempasuchil'- the scent of marigolds forms a path the souls of the dead can follow back to the living on the annual Day of the Dead. Part documentary, part concert film, Flor, features acclaimed Americana/alternative band Calexico, playing a concert in the historic Rialto Theater to their hometown audience. Desert rat journalist Charles Bowden, who has roamed the borderlands in search of an elusive truth for decades, author Margaret Regan, artist Salvador Duran and others, comment on the insanity of American immigration policies, the blood flowing from an endless and un-winnable drug war, the uselessness of the word, 'closure', and the search for comfort in the resurgent Santa Muerte religion. Their collective voices, along with Calexico's penetrating music, make this beautifully shot documentary a mesmerizing and topical intellectual jam. The omnipresent border fence ultimately fails to divide the fertile cultural zone that is the border. Death is the great equalizing border we will all cross. With the furor over SB1070 and the border death toll climbing, this timely juxtaposition of the Day of the Dead with our immigration policies draws a line in the desert sand.