¡Alambrista!
In ¡Alambrista!, a Mexican farmworker sneaks across the border to California to make money to send to his family back home. It is a story that happens every day, told here in an uncompromising, groundbreaking work of realism from American independent filmmaker Robert M. Young. Vivid and spare where other films about illegal immigration might sentimentalize, Young’s take is equal parts intimate character study and gripping road movie, a political work that never loses sight of the complex man at its center. ¡Alambrista!, winner of the Cannes Film Festival’s inaugural Caméra d’Or in 1978, remains one of the best films ever made on this perennially relevant topic.
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New audio commentary featuring director Robert M. Young and coproducer Michael Hausman
- New interview with actor Edward James Olmos
- Children of the Fields (1973), a short documentary by Young, accompanied by a new interview with the director
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A new essay by film historian Charles Ramírez Berg
New cover by Richard Mia
Director-Approved Special Edition Features
- New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- New audio commentary featuring director Robert M. Young and coproducer Michael Hausman
- New interview with actor Edward James Olmos
- Children of the Fields (1973), a short documentary by Young, accompanied by a new interview with the director
- Trailer
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: A new essay by film historian Charles Ramírez Berg
New cover by Richard Mia
Cast
- Domingo Ambriz
- Roberto
- Trinidad Silva
- Joe
- Linda Gillin
- Sharon
- Ned Beatty
- Anglo coyote
- Jerry Hardin
- Man in café
- Julius Harris
- Second drunk
- Ludevina Mendez Salazar
- Roberto’s wife
- Maria Guadalupe Chavez
- Roberto’s mother
- Edward Lopez
- Contractor
- Evelyn Chieko Saito
- Strawberry field owners
- Tom Tar
- Strawberry field owners
- Paul Berrones
- Berto
- George Smith
- Cook in café
- Dennis Harris
- Sharon’s brother
- Edward James Olmos
- First drunk
- Reverend J. D. Hurt
- Revival preacher
- Salvador Martinez
- Mexican coyote
- R. L. Dick Rautenberg
- Junkyard owners
- Kent Rautenberg
- Junkyard owners
- Félix José Álvarez
- Junkyard cook
- John Sandoval
- Roberto’s father
- Alfred Alvernaz
- Watermelon field crew boss
- Officer Constantine Copulos
- Highway Patrol officer
- Officer J. C. Lamont
- Border officials
- Officer Thomas Coffman
- Border officials
- Lily Álvarez
- Pregnant woman
Credits
- Director
- Robert M. Young
- Producer
- Michael Hausman
- Producer
- Irwin Young
- Executive producer
- Barbara Schultz
- Executive producer
- Albert Camarillo, Ph.D.
- Executive producer
- Davíd Carrasco, Ph.D.
- Executive producer
- Jose B. Cuellar, Ph.D.
- Written by
- Robert M. Young
- Director of photography
- Robert M. Young
- Editing
- Edward Beyer
- Editing
- Norman Buckley
- Music composed and adapted by
- Francisco Herrera
- Music composed and adapted by
- Tomas Montoya
- Associate producers
- Sandra Schulberg
- Associate producers
- David Streit
- Assistant director
- Michael Hausman
- Additional photography
- Tom Hurwitz
- Sound mixer
- Martin Quiroz
- Art director
- Lili Kilvert
- Lighting director
- Michael Barrow
- Assistant editor
- Jay Dranch
- Sound editor
- Mitch Worth
- Location coordinator
- Donald Wylie
- Production assistants
- Shawn Hausman
- Production assistants
- Madeline Todd
- Production assistants
- Sarah Young
- Still photographer
- Andrew Young
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