All of Me

Shot in the Mexican village of La Patrona, the haunting documentary All of Me centers on the region's semi-resigned, semi-rebellious women known as Patronas. Raised with hopes and dreams of their own, these women—generation after generation—have become lost in the quagmire of marriages to men they barely know, saddled with all-consuming child-rearing and exhausting field work (e.g. picking coffee beans) on top of domestic chores. One might expect them to be completely drained, but there's a fire inside the Patronas that comes from an unexpected sidebar to their lives: feeding a never-ending flow of Central American and Mexican hopefuls riding the rails in boxcars on their way to illegal immigration to America. Cooking up large amounts of food that can be packed into plastic bags, the Patronas are caught on camera several times in a surreal drama, repeatedly handing off those bags to outstretched arms reaching from speeding trains. There is obvious danger to everyone involved, and flawless timing is required to get the meals to long rows of hungry migrants in this passionate political and humanitarian balancing act. Filmmaker Arturo González Villaseñor makes the point that thousands of such would-be immigrants disappear during their efforts to get to America, but for the Patronas, doing their bit for weary travelers keeps the fighting spirit alive inside them as well. Recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)