30th Annual - June 10 - 13, 2010
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The Virgin Of Juarez
This Week in L.A. journalist Karina Danes (Minnie Driver) has come to Juarez, Mexico, a small town on the US border, to write about maquiladoras, foreign-owned factories that attract poor workers despite sweatshop conditions. Most of the employees are women earning money to send back to their families. But many of them die before they have the chance. Since 1993, nearly 400 of these women have been raped and killed, often while walking home after brutally long work days. Local authorities have been ineffective in stopping the killing spree and their involvement called into question. Danes is introduced to this world by a Catholic priest, Father Herrera (Esai Morales), and a community activist, Patrick Nuncio (Angus McFadyen).Mariela (Anna Claudia Talancon) is a teenager determined to help her family. When she leaves her village for the promise of Juarez her mother gives her a pendant of the Virgin of Guadalupe. It is her only protection. The Virgin, it appears, works mysteriously. Shortly after Mariela is hired at a maquiladora, she is abducted, raped, and left for dead in the desert. Mariela survives but the attack leaves her straddling two worlds. She has intense visions of the Virgin Mary and begins to exhibit signs of stigmata, the inexplicable appearance of wounds in her hands that mimic those Christ received when He was nailed to the cross.Isidro (Jorge Cervera, Jr.) is a janitor at the hospital where Mariela is recovering. His wife was one of the murdered workers, and he is convinced Mariela is the embodiment of the Virgin herself, come to stop the feminocidio. He is not alone. As the story of Mariela's ordeal spreads, she attracts a devout following and comes to be known as La Virgen. She preaches from an abandoned church. For some, Mariela is dangerous. She has photographs of suspects in the Juarez killings and she disperses them with thinly veiled sermons. When another attempt is made on her life, Father Herrera and Danes help her move to the relative safety of Los Angeles. There, Mariela's power is no less potent. With the help of Father Herrera's gangster brother Gio (Noel Guglielmi), she continues to spread word of the events in Juarez. Soon, a series of suspects in the killings are themselves mysteriously murdered and authorities turn to La Virgen. During the investigation, Mariela comes face to face with a man carrying her Virgin of Guadalupe pendant, still stained with her blood. She has not seen it since the night of her attack. The lines between saint and sinner, redemption and revenge, good and evil are now difficult to discern.
Producer: Kevin James Dobson
Director: Kevin James Dobson
Screenwriter: Michael Fallon
Editor: Bruce Novotny
Cinematographer:
Cast: Minnie Driver, Ana Claudia Talancon, Esai Morales, Jacob Vargas, Angus Macfayden
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