Borders in Post 9/11 Cinema A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Fine Arts of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Gordon Briggs December 2016 © 2016 Gordon Briggs. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled Borders in Post 9/11 Cinema by GORDON BRIGGS has been approved for Interdisciplinary Arts and the College of Fine Arts by Erin Schlumpf Visiting Assistant Professor of Film Studies Elizabeth Sayrs Interim Dean, College of Fine Arts 3 ABSTRACT BRIGGS, GORDON, Ph.D., December 2016, Film Borders in Post 9/11 Cinema Director of Dissertation: Erin Schlumpf This dissertation investigates four contemporary films that focus on borders and border security in the wake of 9/11. The films chosen were: Three Burials for Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones 2005) Frozen River (Courtney Hunt 2008), Children of Men (Alfonso Cuarón 2005), and Sleep Dealer (Alex Rivera 2008). The textual analysis of this dissertation focuses on depictions of border spaces and the people who cross them within a particular cycle of films. This work examines how this collection of films challenges both traditional depictions of border spaces in films and the nativist conceptions of border that permeated the country in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In doing so, this work explores how these cinematic border spaces offer new conceptions of home, identity, and citizenship. This examination focuses on three different components of this cycle of border cinema, frontier, mobility, and the notion of home. In undertaking this analysis this dissertation employs an interdisciplinary triangle of 9/11 Studies, Genre Studies, and Border Studies. 4 DEDICATION This work is dedicated to all my friends, family, and teachers who assisted me in the research and completion of this work. I wish to thank my friend and colleague Nathanial Wallace and Christopher Hull for all their help and support while completing this project. I would also like to dedicate this work to my father Dr. Ronald Briggs for encouraging me to reach the finish line. Thank you all for your help. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my deepest and sincere appreciation to my committee chair Dr. Erin Schlumpf for all her hard work in helping me complete this dissertation. I would also like to thank Dr. Michael Gillespie for his assistance and guidance in this work. In addition I would like to thank Director of the School of Interdisciplinary Arts Charles Buchanan for all his help in completing this work. Furthermore, I would like to thank the scholars whose work began my interest in borders. Specifically, Ali Behdad for his eye opening writing on borders. I would also like to thank Dr. Katarzyna Marciniak, whose course on Transnational Cinema ignited my interest in cinematic depictions of borders. Lastly, I would like to thank the writers and directors of the films which I have written about. Their collective work has deepened my learning of other people and places 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract …………………………………………………………….…………………......3 Dedication…………………………………….……….…………….…………….……....4 Acknowledgments ….………………………………………….….………….….……..…5 Introduction: Post 9/11 Border Cinema ………………………………………….…..….10 What is Post 9/11?………………………………………………………………...…..17 Border Studies……………………………………..…………………………….….…28 Genre and the Border …………………..…………...………………………….…..…33 Chapter 1: Three Burials for Melquiades Estrada and the US/Mexico Border.....….…...47 The Bordertown …………………………….………………………...….….…..…….59 Mexico and the Frontier…………………………………..……………………..……..66 Chapter 2: Frozen River and the US/Canadian Border……………………………….….79 US/Canada Pre and Post 9/11………..……………………………………………..….80 The First Crossing……………..………….…………………..…………………..........90 The Second Crossing ……………………..………………………….…................…100 The Third Crossing ………..…………………………………...……..…..………….103 Chapter 3: Borders in Children of Men ….…….…………..…………………….…......110 Genre Definitions ……..……………………………………..…………………….....112 Immigrants and Illegal Aliens………………….………………………...……….…..116 Homeland ….…..…………………..………………………………..………………..118 Mobility in Apocalyptic London………………………………….......……………...130 7 Frontier. ….………….……………………………….…………..………………......133 Chapter 4: Crossing Virtual Borders in Sleep Dealer…..….………..………………….143 The Works of Alex Rivera…………………………….……………….……..…........146 Genre and the Sleep Dealer …………………..………………...……….…………...152 Virtual Mobility and Global Connectivity ..….…………….…………….….…..…...158 Frontier in Sleep Dealer………………………………................................................169 The Boundaries of Home….………..……………………………………………..….184 Conclusion: Borders in Post 9/11 Film ……………………………...............…........…194 Bibliography……….………………………………………...………..………..…..…..203 . 8 LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1: Bush and NYFD officials at stamp unveiling commemorating 9/11….............21 Figure 2: President George W. Bush at Ground Zero after 9/11 attack………............….22 Figure 3: The Arizona Rangers guard the streets of Tombstone, Arizona ...…................48 Figure 4: Mike Norton and Pete Perkins attempt to cross the border…………...............54 Figure 5: Mike Norton tries in vain to escape but it captured by Pete………..…............54 Figure 6: Original Poster for The Adventures of Pancho Villa………………….................58 Figure 7: Detective Quinlan in authority of the bordertown in Touch of Evil …..............62 Figure 8: Pete Perkins and Melquiades Estrada commiserate about home …..................71 Figure 9: Mike must carry Estrada’s corpse across the border to Mexico……….............72 Figure 10: Blind Cowboy played by Levon Helms………………..………….…............74 Figure 11: Pete looks over the decaying body of Estrada…………………….….............77 Figure 12: Frozen St. Lawrence River…………………………………………...............85 Figure 13: Ray and Lila Littlewolf save a child lost in the borderland………….............87 Figure 14: Ray and Lila form an uneasy alliance in order to cross the border…..............91 Figure 15: Ray and Lila encounter violence in the borderlands………….….................104 Figure 16: Ray has to defend her life at gunpoint……………………..…..……............106 Figure 17: Kee reveals that she is carrying the last known human child……….............111 Figure 18: Kee and Theo must cross the war-torn borderlands of England……............115 Figure 19: Character from District 9 slowly transforms into an alien………….............122 Figure 20: Doresett Estates in London………………………………….…….…...........126 Figure 21: Round up of immigrants in Children of Men……….....................................126 Figure 22: Battersea PowerStation in Central London…………………..……..............127 Figure 23: Ministry of Arts in Children on Men………………………………..............127 Figure 24: Admiralty Arch in London………………………………………................128 Figure 25: Admiralty Arch in Children of Men………………………………..............128 Figure 26: Opening shot of Children of Men ends with explosion……………..............131 Figure 27: Battle of Bexhill depicted via long take………………………….................131 9 Figure 28: Comparison between Abu Ghraib prison and Children of Men..…...............136 Figure 29: Kee and Theo escape Bexhill with her child………………………..............142 Figure 30: Kee and Theo floating to Tomorrow………………………………..............143 Figure 31: Memo connects his body via nodes…………………………………............145 Figure 32: Sleep Dealer Factory………………………………………………..............146 Figure 33: Poster to Papapapa...………………………………………………...............147 Figure 34: Cybracero from Why Cybracero?..................................................................151 Figure 35: Bracero permitted to work in America in Why Braceros?.............................151 Figure 36: Comparison between Maquiladora workers and Sleep Dealer worker……..166 Figure 37: Rudy controls drones flying over Mexico border……...............…...............171 Figure 38: Gated water reservoir in Sleep Dealer ……………………..…..…..............173 Figure 39: Reality TV show based on unmanned drones ………………….…..............180 Figure 40: The death of Memo’s father ………………….………………….................185 Figure 41: Phone App that is designed to guide immigrants across the border...............188 10 INTRODUCTION: POST 9/11 BORDER CINEMA This dissertation examines cinematic representations of border spaces during the post- 9/11 era. The genesis of this work lies with one question: how do films render other places? In answering this question the American border plays a significant role. For all the promise that globalization would herald the integration of technologies, economies, and cultures, the border remains a powerful apparatus through which both individuals and ethnic groups can be either included in or excluded from certain communities. In examining the discursive effects of borders, the focus of this dissertation is on various representations of American borders in film. The post- 9/11 time period and texts which comprise the dissertation demonstrate how a certain cycle of border films can challenge essentialist attitudes towards citizenship and nationhood. In undertaking this analysis, my work seeks to reconfigure the border as more than a simple territorial marker. Rather, I argue that films examined in this work depict the border as a disciplinary apparatus whose function is to apply definition to ambiguous spaces and identities. More specifically, the border serves as a powerful, albeit problematic, apparatus for meaning-making through a systemic practice of inclusion and exclusion. This work