Getting to know the area

Today is the day.
After few days in torreon where my family is, I've been asking around about the zone of silence and so far they are discouraging me of not going to the area, the violence is quite bad.
It's really interesting how every one has been in contact with bullets or "balaceras" and the way they describe the events are so normal, like if there was an normal occurrence.
One of my cousins that works for the police told me in a very normal and relaxed way the amount of bodies found each day with messages communicating to the other's gang, the last one read "this is what happens when you kill innocent people"
One of my uncles told me in a cheerful and funny way that the best friend of her daughter was rude to the owner of a popular bar and embarrassed him in front of his friends so he settle her with two shots on her head.
And a taxi driver told me not to trust police he made a commthe that in a recent occasion police was called because of house burglary and during the inspection police were taking thing for themselves.

After Effects Intro for Documentary

Narrator (voice-over) 

My Mexican family was unusual. My father, an economist with strong, radical viewpoints

and mother, open to new experiences and a great story teller,

 decided to take a trip around the South American continent in a truck converted to a camper with us 3 small kids, which at the time was very ambitious. A book, near death experiences and

newspaper articles were a few of the results of that trip.

 A few years later we spent an experimental year of living away from Mexico City on a desert ranch in an area also know as the ‘Zone of Silence.’

About the script

Primary Audience:

English speaking
and more specifically Australian audience who are interested in the
mysterious and natural phenomena such as the Min Min lights of outback Australia as
well as an interest in foreign countries and culture.

Synopsis:

30 years ago on a dark night in the desert of North Mexico my father played a trick on
us kids, or so I thought.
Now I am going to find out for the first time the truth & myths about the ‘crazy lights’ (las
luces locas as they are known locally), that I observed first hand as a young teenager in
the desert of the ‘Zone of Silence’ that night.

Background:

My Mexican family was unusual. My father, an economist with strong, radical viewpoints
and mother, open to new experiences and a great story teller, decided to take a trip
around the South American continent in a truck converted to a camper with us 3 small
kids, which at the time was very ambitious. A book, near death experiences and
newspaper articles were a few of the results of that trip. A few years later we spent an
experimental year of living away from Mexico City on a desert ranch in an area also
know as the ‘Zone of Silence.’

Outline:

Travel back to north Mexico to the ‘zone’ and interview local people from the area about
their views, experiences and the mythology around the area and the phenomenon of the
‘crazy lights’.
Satisfy my curiosity and try to make sense of what really happened that night 30 years
ago.

Problems:

This project requires a considerable amount of time and resources set aside for travel
and filming. As a student with a limited money supply and classes to attend, a trip
requiring at least 3 weeks travel will need to be planned carefully and efficiently.
Planning travel dates around cheap airfares and favorable seasonal condition for travel
in the north of Mexico are a big consideration.
Planning for limited power supply to recharge batteries, sound and light equipment as
well as carrying such equipment around is another practical set of considerations.
However, the main issue regarding implementation of this project beyond that
mentioned above, is to get an adequate volume of content, specifically relevant
dialogue and interview
time to answer my question.
Will I be considered a foreigner in Mexico as I haven’t lived there for 20 years, and not
lived in the north for 30 years? In the last 20 or so years the area is known to attract
small groups of curious people who have heard about the ‘zone’. These tourists may be
regarded by the locals as a nuisance. Will I be treated in that manner and would doors
close rather than open for me?
Can the expense and inconvenience of travel from Australia to the desolate interior of
north Mexico be justified? There is a risk that I will be dismissed as just another
“silenciero” as the locals call the curious tourists that wander around the ‘zone’.

Research:

The problem of unraveling a myth – what did we see that night?
In the few times I have asked my father about what happened that night, he has
maintained the myth and mystery. His response is typically something short and cryptic
such as “I didn’t see anything, what about you?”

A longer oral dialogue rather than his
usual short response will be sought for the beginning of the documentary.

Conspiracy Theory – a popular genre

General research for the project has highlighted the fact that conspiracy theory as a
genre is popular for documentary topics of this nature. This is not the theme that will be
used in this documentary.
The main point of this documentary is to establish that dialogue with the local Mexican
people preferably of an older generation, for their experiences and stories about the
‘Zone’ and more specifically the ‘crazy lights’ that I observed myself.
Will local people want to talk?

The main problem as mentioned previously is a possible limit in opportunity to gather a
required amount of quality interview time to answer the documentaries main point, and
being potentially seen as an outsider and even treated as just another “silenciero”

The area around the ‘zone’ has been sensationalized to a bit because of the mythology
created around happenings there and through conspiracy theories built on top of the
happenings and mythology.

Mentioned in an extract from a 1992 doctoral dissertation on an overlapping area to the
‘zone’ (called the Mapimi Biosphere Reserve), locals consider the curious touristic
outsiders as ‘slightly daft or a nuisance’.

The 1990 movie Zona Del Silencio, is an example of the more extreme type of
conspiratorial publicity that has been given to the area.

If the locals are tired of sensationalized publicity generated by foreigners or those
looking to make money, it could increase the general inhibition that people can have in
front of a camera. Getting them to open up and talk in a natural way and say what they
truly believe or for the interviewer to extract from the person a dialogue relevant to the
topic at hand could be a challenge. They may see any questioning as an intrusion and all the fuss as hype.Or perhaps overpopularizing the area may distort view points where they have been swept up in the hype and embellish accordingly.

The style of the documentary is less about sensation or hype and more about Myth
and facts that may contribute to the mythology. Taking parts of the interview style
like those used by Michael Moore may be useful and could be appropriate. As I
have a connection with the area through living there, the ‘associative documentary
style’ used in ‘Bowling for Columbine’ by Moore as described in an article on the
documentary  is appropriate. However, the rest of Moore’s style such as the use of
‘guerilla tactics of satirical collage and mocknaive ambush interviews, would not be
appropriate.

Lost in translation

A peripheral issue would be in the translation from Spanish to English. As the
intended audience is English speaking, much of the dialogue will need to be
interpreted and subtitled. Essence may be lost as “ translation is also an interpretive
act, meaning may get lost in the translation process.”
A way to maintain essence as much as possible is recommended as “staying in the
original language as long and as much as possible.”

 Application of Research

The documentary will need to start where the story began so I will be interviewing my
father in Spanish on his recollections of our time living in the ‘zone’ as a preface to
going to Mexico.
The interviews in Mexico will be focused on older generation local people. Their
experience is more likely to predate any of the more recent sensation associated with
the area that I discovered in my research of popular press and internet.
Research also has shown there has been changes since I left the area, and it now
seems locals are at least indifferent or even unwelcoming of “silenciero “. That may be
true, but from my own experience living on the ranch, there were lots of old local stories
about ghost and supernatural things happening in the area, like the mysterious lights
that appear and disappear. These stories have been there for a long time and were
spoken of freely.
Like Moore, I can begin interviews with associating with the culture, area and language,
having lived there and being Mexican. Establishing that rapport is probably the most
important part of getting the interviewees to be free to talk in a natural way.
On researching language interpretation it reminded me how easy it is to lose much of
the meaning between Spanish and English. There are words and phrases in Spanish
that have no English equivalent and when they are translated they sound completely
wrong. Interpretation into English could be left to the final cut of editing the interviews, in
an effort to preserve as much meaning into the condensed resulting dialogue.

The making of a documentary

The Zone of Silence

Documentary

“For 30 years I thought my father played a trick on us kids.

Today I'm going to find out for the first time the truth about the crazy lights that I observed first hand as a young teenager in the zone of silence desert.”

This story emerged during a normal family conversation where we were remembering our stay at the ranch. At that time we were city people living in a deserted place full of ghost stories and supernatural phenomena: ” The woman with the horse head”, “The devil with the chicken foot”, “The weeping woman looking for her lost kids”. We didn’t believe the stories, specially the one about the crazy lights.  They were called crazy because their movement were random and their appearance was also random.

However, our disbelief in the crazy lights was about to change.  One night 3 lights appeared on the horizon at dusk. We thought they were tractors working on the ranch next door so we decided to have a look at the lights ourselves. We seated the horses and my brother, dad and myself went in search of them. We rode for about 2 km but the lights were not getting closer or further, they just remained where they were, moving from side-to-side. Then, without warning they disappeared. We looked at each other and my father said to start heading back, so we turned around. Suddenly and as soon as we turned to head back , the lights came back, brighter than before as if they were close behind us.  All I could see was a long shadow of me on the horse. Scared, I didn’t look back but signaled the horse to get back home and we all started galloping towards the house. Upon arrival I asked my dad and brother if they turned around to see what was behind us but they told me that they were so scared that they didn't and just wanted to get home.

I was 14 years old and my father always played tricks on us at that time. I didn’t even ask, but I thought it was just another trick. I was certain that my father has seen something so obvious that he just didn’t want to say. He wanted to keep us in suspense and wonder.

About 30 years later,  I asked my father (now in his seventies) what he saw the night we went in search of the crazy lights. He laughed, and said - I don’t know, I was too scared to turn around and look. To this day I am still not sure if he is still playing the same trick.

This is a part of my history that I want to revisit.