The Nelson Institute’s Tales from Planet Earth
Films with integrity
Films with integrity
The first 15 films that Rivera has produced have dealt with the issue of immigration, an issue he passionately feels about. “Not to sound
dramatic, but I do think there is a war against Latino people in this country right now led by the likes of Lou Dobbs and many powerful political
forces that use media to tell stories to keep people like my family from getting a chance to go to school or getting a chance to get a good job and a
decent wage or organize a union,” Rivera said. “There is an apparatus, there is an attack that is active.”
To counterattack this apparatus, Rivera doesn’t focus on the polar opposites of the immigration debate, the immigrant as criminal or
immigrant as victim story lines. Instead, Rivera aims for the lush, gray middle of the debate where immigrants are complex people with some of
the same dreams and flaws that every day Americans have.
For instance, one of Rivera’s films is called ‘Papapapá,’ a story about his father who immigrated from Peru and the potato. “It tells two
stories,” Rivera said of the film. “One is the story of my dad, my papa, who is of Peruvian descent. He came to America as an immigrant. The other
story is of the papa, the potato, which is also of Peruvian origins. It was first cultivated by the Incas. And the potato ultimately ends up in America
and becomes the French fry and the potato chip. These two stories converge as my dad becomes a Peruvian couch potato sitting on the American
sofa, watching Spanish language television and eating Pringles. So it was a playful look at immigration and assimilation, how these two beings —
one human and one vegetable — end up in American and become transformed.”
While the vast majority of Rivera’s work has been short documentary or fiction films, he recently completed his first feature film through
connections he made at the Sundance Institute in 2001. ‘Sleep Dealer’ is a science fiction movie based in the America of 2020. “The main
character is a young Mexican who is born in a little village in the desert,” Rivera said. “And he leaves his village to come north and work. In this
near future, he finds a giant border wall and a border that has been sealed off so he can’t cross. He can’t come to America. So instead, he goes
into a factory in Mexico where he connects his body to a kind of network — an Internet — that lets him control a machine, a robot in America that
does his work. So his labor comes to America, but his body remains in Mexico. It’s an absurd, dark and funny twist on the American Dream as my
character works in America, but is never able to actually come. Sleep Dealer is like a metaphor for what we live with today, which is a world
where there is an estimated 15 million people here who rent apartments, who go shopping in the grocery stores and who work. They live here, but
they can’t vote. They are called illegal and don’t have all kinds of basic rights. So there is this kind of sense of a population of people who are
here, but aren’t really here. So it is this idea of the remote worker whose work is here, but is not here at all. That high-tech, surreal vision in Sleep
Dealer is a metaphor for the world we live in today. But it is also a prediction. Today we are completely used to picking up the phone and
dialoguing with someone who is in India. That is a new phenomenon, the idea that white-collar work, service labor, could be outsourced over the
Internet. That’s a new thing that we now accept as normal. What will be normal in 2020?”
Rivera is committed to a cause and film making is the means and not the ends of Rivera’s dreams. “I’ve got no interest in doing the next ‘X-
Men’ movie or the next Adam Sandler comedy,” Rivera said with a smile. “I love thinking about the world and I love thinking about politics. And I
love thinking about dreams and nightmares of where our society might go. So that’s what I want to do. And if I do it small gauge with my video
camera and home computer, that makes me happy. And if I get a chance to get a budget that is larger and do something big scale that has
integrity, that makes me excited too. I’m not sure which direction I’ll be going in. But I am too worried about the future of the planet and too worried
about the state of Latino people in the United States to just want to go and direct sit-coms or something. I want to be engaging in the battle for the
future of this country in some small way, whatever tiny way that I can. I think we need a Latino imaginary in this country that has the big dreams
and thinks radical strange thoughts and tells the society that we are here and we’re dreaming and that we have something exciting to offer and
we’re not going anywhere. That’s not just about me. It’s about a whole movement of Latino voices that needs to be nurtured in this country. Being
one part of that is what I would like to do.”
Although his films are entertaining, Rivera’s passion lies in the message that he brings about immigration, replacing cardboard cutout
characters with flesh and blood people whose stories cannot be ignored. Hopefully, Rivera’s films will soon be coming to a theater near you.
dramatic, but I do think there is a war against Latino people in this country right now led by the likes of Lou Dobbs and many powerful political
forces that use media to tell stories to keep people like my family from getting a chance to go to school or getting a chance to get a good job and a
decent wage or organize a union,” Rivera said. “There is an apparatus, there is an attack that is active.”
To counterattack this apparatus, Rivera doesn’t focus on the polar opposites of the immigration debate, the immigrant as criminal or
immigrant as victim story lines. Instead, Rivera aims for the lush, gray middle of the debate where immigrants are complex people with some of
the same dreams and flaws that every day Americans have.
For instance, one of Rivera’s films is called ‘Papapapá,’ a story about his father who immigrated from Peru and the potato. “It tells two
stories,” Rivera said of the film. “One is the story of my dad, my papa, who is of Peruvian descent. He came to America as an immigrant. The other
story is of the papa, the potato, which is also of Peruvian origins. It was first cultivated by the Incas. And the potato ultimately ends up in America
and becomes the French fry and the potato chip. These two stories converge as my dad becomes a Peruvian couch potato sitting on the American
sofa, watching Spanish language television and eating Pringles. So it was a playful look at immigration and assimilation, how these two beings —
one human and one vegetable — end up in American and become transformed.”
While the vast majority of Rivera’s work has been short documentary or fiction films, he recently completed his first feature film through
connections he made at the Sundance Institute in 2001. ‘Sleep Dealer’ is a science fiction movie based in the America of 2020. “The main
character is a young Mexican who is born in a little village in the desert,” Rivera said. “And he leaves his village to come north and work. In this
near future, he finds a giant border wall and a border that has been sealed off so he can’t cross. He can’t come to America. So instead, he goes
into a factory in Mexico where he connects his body to a kind of network — an Internet — that lets him control a machine, a robot in America that
does his work. So his labor comes to America, but his body remains in Mexico. It’s an absurd, dark and funny twist on the American Dream as my
character works in America, but is never able to actually come. Sleep Dealer is like a metaphor for what we live with today, which is a world
where there is an estimated 15 million people here who rent apartments, who go shopping in the grocery stores and who work. They live here, but
they can’t vote. They are called illegal and don’t have all kinds of basic rights. So there is this kind of sense of a population of people who are
here, but aren’t really here. So it is this idea of the remote worker whose work is here, but is not here at all. That high-tech, surreal vision in Sleep
Dealer is a metaphor for the world we live in today. But it is also a prediction. Today we are completely used to picking up the phone and
dialoguing with someone who is in India. That is a new phenomenon, the idea that white-collar work, service labor, could be outsourced over the
Internet. That’s a new thing that we now accept as normal. What will be normal in 2020?”
Rivera is committed to a cause and film making is the means and not the ends of Rivera’s dreams. “I’ve got no interest in doing the next ‘X-
Men’ movie or the next Adam Sandler comedy,” Rivera said with a smile. “I love thinking about the world and I love thinking about politics. And I
love thinking about dreams and nightmares of where our society might go. So that’s what I want to do. And if I do it small gauge with my video
camera and home computer, that makes me happy. And if I get a chance to get a budget that is larger and do something big scale that has
integrity, that makes me excited too. I’m not sure which direction I’ll be going in. But I am too worried about the future of the planet and too worried
about the state of Latino people in the United States to just want to go and direct sit-coms or something. I want to be engaging in the battle for the
future of this country in some small way, whatever tiny way that I can. I think we need a Latino imaginary in this country that has the big dreams
and thinks radical strange thoughts and tells the society that we are here and we’re dreaming and that we have something exciting to offer and
we’re not going anywhere. That’s not just about me. It’s about a whole movement of Latino voices that needs to be nurtured in this country. Being
one part of that is what I would like to do.”
Although his films are entertaining, Rivera’s passion lies in the message that he brings about immigration, replacing cardboard cutout
characters with flesh and blood people whose stories cannot be ignored. Hopefully, Rivera’s films will soon be coming to a theater near you.
Alex Rivera’s first feature length film ‘Sleep Dealer”
is a science-fiction film about immigration in 2020.
is a science-fiction film about immigration in 2020.
By Jonathan Gramling
Alex Rivera, whose work was featured at The Nelson Institute’s Tales from Planet Earth,
is a self-made film maker. Inspired by the political activism of Pete Seeger, Rivera went to
Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. hoping to study music and politics. He ended up
studying politics alright, but his interest turned to films. It was the ability to express himself
more than a career that led him to the film business.
“I never planned on breaking into the movie industry,” Rivera said during an interview
with The Capital City Hues. “On one level, I didn’t even know there was an industry. But I just
started making videos by hand in college. I made them with a small home camcorder and
editing them at school. I just started making very modest videos by myself. And when I
graduated, I was working by day as an editor on other people’s videos — music videos and
industrial videos — and at night, I was editing my own personal projects. I sent my first films
out to film festivals. To my complete surprise, the films got shown and people liked them. So I
started to develop a little resume, started to get grants and continued making films.”
Alex Rivera, whose work was featured at The Nelson Institute’s Tales from Planet Earth,
is a self-made film maker. Inspired by the political activism of Pete Seeger, Rivera went to
Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. hoping to study music and politics. He ended up
studying politics alright, but his interest turned to films. It was the ability to express himself
more than a career that led him to the film business.
“I never planned on breaking into the movie industry,” Rivera said during an interview
with The Capital City Hues. “On one level, I didn’t even know there was an industry. But I just
started making videos by hand in college. I made them with a small home camcorder and
editing them at school. I just started making very modest videos by myself. And when I
graduated, I was working by day as an editor on other people’s videos — music videos and
industrial videos — and at night, I was editing my own personal projects. I sent my first films
out to film festivals. To my complete surprise, the films got shown and people liked them. So I
started to develop a little resume, started to get grants and continued making films.”