Tijuana has always ben known as a place where two distinct worlds meet - affluent California bordering the les well-off Mexico. Famous as a place where U.S. college students and other thrill seekers could cut loose and procure forbidden pleasures, Tijuana has also given birth to a unique creative art and music scene.
While the cultural phenomena known as Border Arts is nothing new, filmmaker and musician Hans Fjellestad approaches Tijuana and its porous cultural identity with a fresh outlook in his documentary Frontier Life. Attempting to give a broad overview of what's happening socially and creatively in Tijuana today, Fjellestad only briefly covers its sex and drug culture, choosing instead to focus on custom car racing, waste-water treatment and the Nortec music scene - a hybrid of electronica and the old-school Norteño of Mexico. What we end up with is a quick-paced, smartly edited doc that boasts an innovative score featuring some of Tijuana's most visionary musicians, including the director himself. Frontier Life's soundtrack album, with music by the Tijuana-based Nortec Collective and the San Diego-based Trummerflora Collective, was recently released by Accretions Records.
- A.S.
