Nuestro Cine: “Fruits” of Their Labor

On Wednesday the U.S. Library of Congress (LOC) announced this year’s list of films added to the National Film Registry. Works by Latino directors Robert Rodriguez (“El Mariachi”) and Ramón Menéndez (“Stand and Deliver”) where recognized by the LOC for their historical and cultural significance.

Among the twenty-five selections made by the LOC is “Fake Fruit Factory”, a documentary on focused on Mexican laborers constructing paper mache fruits and vegetables. According to the LOC, the 1986 film directed by Chick Strand deftly combined “documentary, avant-garde and ethnographic techniques.” Furthermore:

In "Fake Fruit Factory," Strand employs a moving camera at close range to create colorfully vivid images often verging on abstraction, while her soundtrack picks up snatches of conversation to evoke, in her words, "the spirit of the people." "I want to know," Strand wrote, "really what it is like to be a breathing, talking, moving, emotional, relating individual in the society."

See for yourself why “Fake Fruit Factory” was deservedly added to the National Film Registry:

Video Source - YouTube via mdfdoyle

Online Sources- Reuters, Library of Congress