"Ya Basta!: Kidnapped In Mexico" (Ainslie, 2007)

51 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles

Ya Basta Website :: Download EPK (.zip) :: Watch Trailer :: PRESS

This film describes the wave of kidnappings and other crimes that have swept over Mexico in the last decade. Today Mexico has one of the highest incidences of kidnapping in the world, for example, and while the phenomenon was initially a problem for the wealthy elite, it has become increasingly ‘democratized’ (as the rich found ways of protecting themselves). Today, people in all walks of life are ready targets.  Via experts (all Mexican) I argue that the sources of this crisis are two-fold: one is the cost of the country’s transition to democracy (much like Iraq post Saddam Hussein, when Mexico’s PRI party started losing power, their control over historically corrupt police was lost). The second is structural deficits in key institutions: police forces that are highly corrupt, poorly paid, and ill-trained; a judicial system where there is no transparency and that has elements that date back to the Holy Inquisition, etc.

Ya Basta screenings and scheduled screenings:

South by Southwest Film Festival (March, 2007, Austin, Texas)

Cine las Americas Film Festival (April, 2007, Austin, Texas)

Expresion en Corto Film Festival (July, 2007, San Miguel de Allende & Guanajuato, Mexico)

Festival Morelia  (SOctober, 2007, Morelia, Mexico)

Lonestar International Film Festival (November, 2007, Fort Worth, Texas)

Leeds Film Festival (November, 2007, Leeds, England)

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"Looking North: Mexican Images of Immigration" (Ainslie 2006)

30 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles:: Watch Movie (Real Player)

I did man-in-the-street interviews with people in Mexico City regarding their thoughts, perceptions, experiences (several had gone to the US and returned) with the immigration phenomenon. Eleven percent of native born Mexicans now reside in the US. The immigration patterns of the last decade have had a profound effect on Mexico. 

I have used this film in a variety of ways. I have presented it (in the case of the Berkeley presentation, I screened a rough cut) at academic conferences and centers:

Documentary Analysis of Immigration, Crime, and Desegregation in the United States and Mexico. Center for Latino Policy Research, UC at Berkeley, October, 2005

Mexican Images of Immigration. American Psychological Association's Expert Conference on Immigration, San Antonio, February, 2006

Looking North: Mexican Images of Immigration Linneae Terrarum, International Borders Conference, El Paso/Ciudad Juarez Mexico March, 2006

The Immigrant’s Journey: Implications for School Social Work, Keynote speaker, Social Workers Making a Difference Conference, February, 2006

Looking North: Mexican Images of Immigration. Center for Mexican American Studies & Harry Ransom Center. University of Texas at Austin, December 2006.

When speaking specifically about the film in these academic contexts I typically address what I’m calling the ‘immigrant’s social imaginary,’ drawing from the work of Castoriadis on the Social Imaginary. I also draw from psychoanalysis to theorize about the ways in which culture is deeply inscribed as a psychological experience/reality.  My argument is that the different voices captured in the film are some of the myriad voices that immigrants ‘carry’ with them as they make their way here in the US.

I have also used the as a tool for presentations and workshops for non-academics who are working on the front lines with immigrant populations (e.g. individuals working with school districts, social services, police departments, Catholic Charities and other NGOs). For these workshops I discuss the psychology of the immigrant experience, the psychological tensions and conflicts created by the experience of being culturally displaced, the concept of ‘cultural mourning’ (from my publications), etc. My aim here is to help these individuals better understand the psychologically complex experiences of the immigrants with whom they are working.

A 53-minute Documentary film. Ricardo Ainslie, Director. view the online clips

"Crossover" is a compelling account of the desegregation of schools in Hempstead, Texas, a small community west of Houston. The primary voices in this narrative are the teachers and alumni of the Sam Schwarz School, Hempstead's pre-integration African-American school, as well as white teachers and administrators who were working in the school district when schools were desegregated. The Sam Schwarz School was named for a Jewish immigrant from Poland who came to the United States during the Civil War and became a successful dry goods merchant in Hempstead. His descendents donated the land for the school in his memory. The underlying theme of the documentary is the bittersweet legacy of the Civil Rights Era for the African-American community--much was gained, but cherished institutions that anchored the community were also lost. As happened in countless communities throughout the South, in Hempstead virtually every trace of the Sam Schwarz School disappeared. The building was razed and the contents of its trophy cases, once brimming with scholastic and athletic awards (the school was very successful, and its alumni include many distinguished educators, physicians, attorneys, and engineers) ultimately ended up in the Hempstead city dump. Relying heavily on vivid characters who deliver rich, at times poignant, but also humorous observations, the documentary traces pre Civil Rights life in the community, the anxieties and anticipations of the era of desegregation of schools. The film also includes reflections, from a contemporary perspective, on what was gained and what was lost within the African American community in this great transformation of the American social landscape.

Crossover was co-produced by Ricardo Ainslie and Fae Moore and edited by Don Howard, an award winning filmmaker ("Letter from Waco"). Howard was one of the editors in Richard Linklater's "Dazed and Confused," and has edited work for PBS (Most recently a special segment on Texas Filmmakers). He also teaches advanced film editing in the Radio, Television, and Film department at the University of Texas at Austin.
THEMES: Cultural Trauma, the psychology of race and racial conflict

Film Screenings and Presentations

"Coming Home: The Legacy of the Vietnam War"

A documentary film about the legacy of the Vietnam War.

A documentary film about the conundrum of what makes it possible for human beings to have reflective experience.

view the online clips