To local musician and filmmaker Hans Fjellestad, San Diego is an artistically sleepy town.
"It's a wonderful place to come home to when you've been traveling," said Fjellestad from his house in Hillcrest. "But it's a very challenging place to create art and to find work as an artist."
Yet things have worked out well for this 34-year-old artist of Danish descent, who found a source of inspiration in Tijuana, where he recently produced and directed the documentary "Frontier Life."
Feeding off the innovative and electronic sounds of the Nortec Collective music movement, the stories of illegal drag racers and the insights of young artists and social anthropologists, Fjellestad has created a documentary that brings to light the urban and artistic realities of contemporary Tijuana.
The 93-minute documentary will screen Thursday as part of the Thursday Night Thing at downtown's Museum of Contemporary Art. The series, which is designed to bring together the artistic communities of San Diego and Tijuana, is held the first Thursday of every month.
"Frontier Life" exemplifies the binational and cultural connection the museum is looking to embrace. Shot entirely in Tijuana during an eight-month period, the film came about as the result of the friendships Fjellestad had cultivated in the last three years with some of the city's most prominent artists and musicians.
The documentary is winding down its two-month, 16-city tour, which visited several U.S. stops. It screened in Vancouver, British Columbia, and is scheduled to be shown Nov. 15 at Tijuana's Cecut and at the Tijuana Beat Shop venue, in Playas de Tijuana, on Nov. 23. Fjellestad's work underscores Tijuana's popularity among prominent international musicians and artists who have either found inspiration in this border city of 1.5 million people, or have made it an important stop when they tour. Some of these artists include multilingual, alternative singer-songwriter Manú Chao, ex-Jane's Addiction and Porno for Pyros singer Perry Farrell (who performs at the historic Jai Alai building downtown this Saturday) and other high-profile European DJs and Latin-alternative musical acts.
Fjellestad studied music composition at UCSD and is a resident artist of Trummerflora, a collective of San Diego-based musicians that promote improvised and electronic music.
Born in San Diego, he has also produced and directed several documentaries, videos and commercials which have been shown in the United States, Brazil, Mexico, Japan and Europe. "Frontier Life," his latest production, was an official selection of the Calgary International Film Festival.
So what's special about Tijuana? After all, many people on both sides of the border don't even consider it to be a true representation of Mexico.
"There are cities that have a certain intensity that change you when you visit them," Fjellestad said. "It might sound strange, but Tijuana is on that short list of cities."
The documentary captures that spirit.
Through images of Tijuana's trademark collective red taxis, street vendors and colorful street musicians, the documentary uncovers a young city that judges its residents by their contributions to society rather than by their family ties.
"Here, you are recognized by the things you do and the things you have because we are still in the process of building a society," said "Frontier Life" interview subject Raúl Cárdenas of Torolab, a collective of musicians, writers, architects and social anthropologists based in Tijuana.
"Frontier Life" also explores the culture of improvisation through the street drag racers who built their cars virtually at no cost from vehicles discarded in California.
Fjellestad said he was impressed by the reaction the documentary received during the tour, especially in such remote places as Salina, Kan. "People came down from the hills because they figured 'Frontier Life' had to do with the Wild West or the Gold Rush," Fjellestad said. "I was happy to see that nobody left the theater, so I guess they liked it."
For Fjellestad, the film, in part, challenges these types of myths. But most important, it captures a moment in the history of this young Mexican city.
"I'm more excited about what is going to happen next, especially with electronic music," he said. "In Tijuana, you have to be quick to capture these moments."
