Intimidad

US / 2008 / David Redmon & Ashley Sabin / 53 and 72 mins

Cecy and Camilo are a young couple struggling to make ends meet. They leave their modest hometown of Santa Maria, Puebla, east of Mexico City and their baby daughter Loida with Cecy's parents and resettle in Reynosa; a city in a nearby state.

Reynosa is now a global production centre having undergone a major industrial boom with foreign corporations building assembly plants or "maquiladoras", attracted by the cheap peso and incentives under NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement). Everyday thousands of migrants like Cecy and Camilo, pile into factories like the Victoria Secret assembly plant that Cecy works at lured by the promise of a minimum wage and a better life. Filmed in Super 8 and 16mm, Intimidad captures acutely the contrasting images of consumer culture and dire poverty that exist alongside each other in Reynosa. Then, their plans to make their pot of gold and even their marriage come under threat when a brief visit back to Puebla where they reunite with their daughter throws Cecy into moral turmoil.

Intimidad explores the difficult choices and sacrifices that we are confronted with in trying to build better lives for our families. The travails faced by the couple are intimately captured against a background of extreme poverty, rapid industrialization and consumerism.


"Much sentiment is expressed and tears are shed, but Intimidad never feels forced, melodramatic, or staged. Co-directors Redmon and Sabin exercise restraint in the presenting the young couple's story while also making it cinematic, in part by including b-camera footage shot in 16mm that adds a more poetic touch to the ordinary lives caught on video." SXSW Cinematical Review 2008