Eccentric Chicano makes documentary about poor white people living in crappy trailer homes
By ONANTZIN News
2011-07-08
Westwood, CA -- Tired of whites always making documentaries about poverty-stricken Hispanics, a Chicano student from UCLA spent the last two years filming dirt poor white people living in trashy trailer homes across the state of Missouri.
The depressing footage of impoverished white Missourians, which captures excruciating misfortune in trailer home after trailer home, was compiled by Chicano Studies student Salvador Carmona with one goal in mind: to turn the tables on white people by making a documentary where their misfortune is the subject.
"I was tired of watching countless documentaries where white people go into Hispanic communities and portray us like afflicted national geographic oddities; therefore, I decided to reverse things by being the first Hispanic to go into destitute neighborhoods of whites and document how depressing some of them live", stated Carmona.
His documentary, titled "Les Miserable Whites", was released this month to positive reviews from minority filmmakers for its breathtaking, poignant depiction of the pitiful living conditions some whites live in; It was, however, not received very well by the white community, who claims only they get to document people living in deplorable conditions.
"This documentary is extremely dangerous for the balance of things. The world has functioned perfectly well with white people making the documentaries about poor people, especially minorities. This new documentary threatens the essence of documentaries by throwing a wrench into a system that's been running smooth for decades now", said William Doyle of the Documentary Film Institute.
Despite the countless criticism and a denial to enter documentary competitions by the white community, Carmona says he feels proud of his work and will continue documenting poor whites throughout the US. "Up Next, I plan on documenting white-trash rednecks living in Arizona", stated Carmona. "Who knows – I might even turn this work it into a thesis one day".