J.P. Sniadecki, Joshua Bonnetta, El Mar La Mar, 2017.

J.P. Sniadecki, Joshua Bonnetta. Still from El mar la mar. 2017. Digital cinema (color, sound), 94 min. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase from J.P. Sniadecki

It took J.P. Sniadecki and Joshua Bonnetta three years to make their hybrid documentary-experimental film, El Mar La Mar. Their decision to use 16mm film, which requires time for developing, further slowed their pace. Out of this considered process emerged a nuanced portrait of the Sonoran Desert and the U.S.-Mexico border running through it. “In fact, we weren’t even trying to make a film about the border,” said Sniadecki of their initial aim. “We were trying to make a film about the desert. It just so happens that there’s a border that crosses it. We were out to understand this space.”

What they discovered was terrain both treacherous and beautiful. Sniadecki and Bonnetta immerse viewers in its contradictions, crafting a three-chapter collage of closely framed details, sweeping views, and nearly abstract footage, shot at all times of day and night and during all kinds of weather conditions. They foreground the sounds of the desert as vividly as its scenes. Voiceovers throughout weave in the harrowing experiences of migrants crossing into the U.S.; perspectives of border patrol agents, residents, and volunteers who leave water for migrants; hikers discovering dead bodies, and, as one man tells it, a monster living somewhere in the desert.

J.P. Sniadecki, Joshua Bonnetta. El mar la mar (2017)