For Your NFR Consideration: Castro’s Rep Sheet

Sometimes I wonder if after 35 years, any Members of Congress still care about the preservation of American film and/or the National Film Registry they helped create. Thankfully, we’ve got Representative Joaquin Castro carrying the torch over in Texas’s 20^th congressional district. On August 15^th (this year’s deadline for NFR nominations), Rep. Castro wrote an open letter to Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden and the National Film Preservation Board nominating 27 films for NFR consideration, compiled by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. On the heels of his successful campaign to get “Selena” on the list two years ago and “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” last year; Castro is going for the three-peat with his nominations, all of which are either by Latino filmmakers, about the Latino experience, or both. I’m glad Rep. Castro is out there shining his spotlight on the NFR, and particularly films by Latino artists, which make up less than 3% of the films currently on the Registry.

I’m not going to go through every film one by one; you can peruse the list yourself. But I do want to write down some of my initial takeaways about this selection.

• Castro’s list isn’t presented in any particular order, which leads me to believe that Gregory Nava’s 1995 film “My Family” is Castro’s top choice by virtue of being listed first. Nava already has two films on the NFR – “El Norte” and the aforementioned “Selena” – and a third wouldn’t seem out of place. Plus “My Family” has Edward James Olmos, who appears in five movies already on the NFR! If betting on the NFR was legitimate, I’d put some money down on “My Family” joining the class of 2023.

• The 27 films are a good sampling of Latino filmmaking, with comedies, dramas, documentaries, and even a sci-fi film highlighting various Latino experiences in America throughout the years. Among the more recognizable titles are “Frida” (2002), “The Milagro Beanfield War” (1988), “Maria Full of Grace”, “Up in Smoke” (1978), and “A Better Life” (2011). Directors represented include Alfonso Arau, Aurora Guerrero, Patricia Riggen, María Ripoll, Mariano Barroso and…Robert Redford? Oh right, I forgot he directed “The Milagro Beanfield War”.

• It’s interesting to note that of these 27 films, a majority of them were made after 2000. This is no doubt in correlation with the rise of independent filmmaking, which is unfortunately still the only way most filmmakers of color can get their films made and their stories told.
• I’m embarrassed to admit that I have not seen any of these films (though the person in front of me on a plane a few months ago was watching “Frida”, so I got the gist of it). At first I thought I had seen Eugenio Derbez’s “Instructions Not Included”, but then I realized I was thinking of the Aubrey Plaza time-travel movie “Safety Not Guaranteed”. Two very different movies. From this list, 2010’s “La Mission” piques my interest. Not only is it set in San Francisco in the late 2000s (aka my college years), but it was directed by Peter Bratt and starring his brother Benjamin. We love to see more “Law & Order” alumni on the list!

• In addition to appearing in a few of these movies, Edward James Olmos directs two of them: the 1992 crime drama “American Me”, and the 2006 HBO movie “Walkout”. Castro will not rest until every Edward James Olmos movie has made the NFR. Next year: “Beverly Hills Chihuahua”!

• Shoutout to Chris Weitz, whose 2011 Oscar-nominated film “A Better Life” is up for consideration. If it makes the cut, Weitz will be the third generation of his family to make the NFR, after his mother Susan Kohner and her mother Lupita Tovar.

• As much I hate to nitpick, I question the eligibility of Castro’s second pick: Alfonso Arau’s 1992 hit “Like Water for Chocolate”. From what I can gather, this was an entirely Mexican production. Heck, it was Mexico’s official submission for the Oscar’s Foreign Language category. Usually the NFR is willing to look the other way if an international film was at least co-financed by an American company, but all signs point to “Like Water for Chocolate” being ineligible for this list.

• I submitted my own 2023 nominations back in March, so I didn’t get to include any of Castro’s choices on my own ballot. That being said I have previously nominated two of his 27 films: Julie Taymor’s “Frida” and Lou Adler’s “Up in Smoke”. I nominated “Frida” in a push to get more female-directed films on the list, and “Up in Smoke” because…come on, it’s Cheech & Chong! Cheech is already on the list, and who am I to break up the band?

As always, you can nominate films for NFR consideration. We’ve passed the deadline for 2023 (I’ll be posting my nominations post soon), but you can get a head start on 2024. Nominate here, check out their website’s list of films not yet on the list, and check out my own For Your Consideration page.