Beyond Borders: John Sayles in Mexico

The documentary for "Beyond Borders" is a look into the making of "Casa De Los Babys" where we see John Sayles and the cast talk about the film and the political, social climate of Acapulco and Latin America.

Though there's not much commentary from the leading cast aside from Marcia Gay Harden, Mary Steenburgen, Lili Taylor, and Rita Moreno, it's really because the filmmakers are trying to look at the politics in Mexico, particularly with its Mexican cast.

They talk about a lot of the adoption of the countries and the frustrations with the Mexicans on how Americans come to Latin America to adopt the babies and take them back to the U.S. and make them lose sight of their original background. Sayles comments on that along w/ the political turmoil of Mexico and the differences between them and America.

It's a very insightful documentary that doesn't give you much to expect on "Casa De Los Babys", especially judging from the early reviews of the film. I think "Casa" is really more of a film to think about in the end w/ a bit of entertaining moments. It might not be Sayles' best film but still it might be a compelling one in the end. I just hope I can enjoy it when I see it in Atlanta on October 10.

This is a beautiful documentary that captures film-making at it's very best. It shows us the independent maverick John Sayles doing a film in Mexico with an amazing cast of both American and Mexican actors. This documentary goes beyond the behind the scenes and explores the real themes of Sayles's movie, primarily foreign adoption and the social economic realities of Latin American. The music on this documentary is quite amazing as well. They use a mix of Latin music such as Lhasa de Sela and few others and a some tracks from Cuba's hip hop band the Orishas. This documentary is featured as an extra in the "Casa de los Babys" DVD.