Within just a few hours of visiting Hospital Gea Gonzalez in Mexico City, the Durango-born filmmaker and author Russell Martin knew he wanted to make a film. The hospital is known throughout the world for it’s reconstructive plastic surgery unit, which helps hundreds of poor patients with facial deformities. “Beautiful Faces” will make its Colorado premiere at Durango Film: An Independent Film Festival this week.
The film follows the doctors and the patients along with their families as it tells a remarkable healthcare story – a timely topic on this side of the border, as well.
“I love the fact that the film presents a different picture of Mexico than is common here,” Martin said. “I’m delighted that we help demonstrate that medical care doesn’t have to be expensive to be excellent. And I’m very proud to help make the case that everyone deserves a face that he or she can present to the world without shame.”
Many of the patients featured in the film are either tormented by other children at school, called “monsters,” or unable to find employment because of their physical appearance. In our looks-obsessed society, this film is not only sobering, but refreshing as well. In Hospital Gea Gonzalez, plastic surgery means more to both the patients and doctors than a perfectly sculpted nose or cheekbones. It is about changing lives for the better.
“As UCLA neuroscientist Marco Iacoboni explains in the film, our brains are wired to disconnect from others who don’t look like us,” Martin said. “It’s unfortunate, but it’s true. So, rather than try to persuade hundreds of millions to learn to accept a few who are very ‘different,’ he argues that we should simply help the different people become as normal as possible. It’s a perspective that makes a lot of sense to me.”
“Beautiful Faces” was produced in association with the UNESCO Chair in Bio-Ethics and Human Rights. It premiered at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas and later that same day at the Bergen International Film Festival in Norway.
Martin, who grew up in Cortez and now lives in California, is the award-winning producer of “Two Spirits,” and author of “Beethoven’s Hair” and “Picasso’s War.” In 2010, Martin was invited to Mexico City by Dr. Kenneth Salyer to visit the 40-year old clinic at Hospital Gea Gonzalez. A year later, Martin was back to document the plastic-surgery unit.
“As I filmmaker and author, I’ve been blessed over a long career to tell many wonderful nonfiction stories,” Martin said. “Yet there is something about the work that goes on at Hospital Gea Gonzalez in Mexico City that profoundly moved me and made me all the more grateful that I get to do the work I do.”
“Beautiful Faces” will show at 9 a.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday at the Gaslight Cinema. It is also available for online streaming at www.beautifulfacesfilm.com.
margaretyh@gmail.com. Margaret Hedderman is a freelance writer based in Durango.
