Watch Victoria Para Chino at Sundance Online Film Festival

On May 14, 2003, an abandoned truck trailer without its cab was found near the town of Victoria in South Texas. When police arrived, they discovered more than 75 Mexican and Central American immigrants inside. The passengers, ranging in age from five to 91 years old, had endured more than four hours inside the unventilated trailer in what had become a botched attempt to cross the U.S. border without documentation. Seventeen people were dead, and those who survived were suffering from severe dehydration, heat exhaustion, and oxygen deprivation. An additional two people later died, bringing the death toll to 19.

Cary Fukunaga’s 13-minute film Victoria Para Chino, a fictionalized account of these events, brought this tragedy to the attention of Park City audiences when it screened at the 2005 Festival, where it also received an Honorable Mention from the Shorts Jury. The film continues to be available to audiences worldwide via the Sundance Online Film Festival at www.sundance.org.

“I didn’t intend this film to be a showcase for my work as a filmmaker,” said Fukunaga recently in a phone conversation. “I just wanted more people to know about this story and to think about the larger issue of immigration.”

2005 was the first year Fukunaga attended the Festival as a filmmaker. “It really is a celebration of the craft of filmmaking,” he said. “Everyone there knows how hard it is to make a film. It just consumes you in every way. And then you get to Sundance and you finally come out of your shell, you get to experience your life again. You’re surrounded by people who are exactly where they want to be at that time, and there’s a kind of euphoria.”

Fukunaga said that having the short be a part of the Sundance Online Film Festival is one way to expand the audience for the film. “The Online Festival allows anyone anywhere in the world to watch this film at any time they want,” he said. “And as a young filmmaker, it’s a great opportunity to get work shown to a wider audience. I’ve seen message boards where people say that watching (the film) online did affect them so I know it’s getting out there. That makes me feel that what I’m doing is worthwhile.”

The truck’s driver, a Jamaican immigrant, was recently found guilty in U.S. District Court on multiple counts of smuggling immigrants across the border. When asked about the trial, Fukunaga said, “I can’t pass judgment on this. I don’t have access to all the facts, and I didn’t want to make an archetypal villain in this film. I’m interested in how people treat one another every day and this case exemplifies the commodification of people. It deals with that very fragile line between what is civilized and what isn’t.”

To watch this film and a selection of other shorts from the Festival for free, visit www.sundance.org, click on the SOFF logo, and go to the Sundance Shorts section of the site. In addition to short films, SOFF brings filmmaker interviews, video highlights, experimental digital arts, and more to any desktop in the world through June 30, 2005.

Cary Fukunaga is pursuing an MFA in Film at New York University. Victoria Para Chino recently received awards at the Tiburon, Milano, and Guadalajara Film Festivals. Fukunaga, is now involved in a variety of feature and short film projects.