Extra Credit Assignment #1- "The Girl" by David Riker

One of the best parts of attending Hunter’s screening of “The Girl” was the discussion with the director David Riker after the movie. He explained the arduous process of creating the movie. There was violence in the parts of Mexico where he wanted to film, he had to recast the two main actresses, he was not allowed to film on the bridge from Mexico to America, he had to replace his whole crew, and financing the movie was extremely difficult. One part of the discussion we had with him related back to our class; because of these difficulties, he definitely did not arrange his shots to be filmed as they were in the movie. He filmed the locations that were easiest first, saving the locations that were hard to get access to for last.

The experience of watching the movie itself was moving, and amusing. The movie was moving because the characters and the theme of the border were extremely complicated; this made the movie that much more realistic, and made you think that much more about poverty and the “American dream”. Also, for most of the movie, the lighting seems to be edited to be warmer than it really is in the daytime; this adds to the fact that we are in Mexico for most of the movie, but also adds an impressionist feel. It was amusing because there were Spanish subtitles when characters spoke in English, but not vice versa. Many people in the audience had to surmise what scenes were about using context clues alone, and we thought it was funny the director had to explain his movie after we had watched it.