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A MOVING PORTRAIT OF AN EXCEPTIONAL MAN
08/09/2007
Although Eva Norvind died before completing Born Without (Nacido sin) her daughter Nailea Norvind stepped in to finish this documentary on Jose Flores that is sure to leave few unmoved. Born without arms and a short person, Flores makes his living playing music on the streets throughout his native Mexico, at times also indulging successfully in his childhood dream of acting, with directors and actors such as Alejandro Jodorowsky and Daniel Jimenez Cacho, and most recently in the theatre.
Not one to accept pity or handouts, with the money he has earned Flores has provided for a devoted wife and seven children, and in this intimate portrait comes across as an exceptional and complex man whose love and energy for life are infectious and absolute.
Norvind says that her mother – who in her tumultuous life worked as an actress, sexologist and teacher – was always looking for contrast and conflict, and with this story wanted to depict the “the perfect of imperfection, the beauty of not being perfect.” Norvind further says that apart from the lack of financing for the film, her mother’s biggest problem in making the documentary was finding someone who spoke badly of Flores, who seemed to have nothing but admirers – only halfway through making the film did a controversial aspect of his life come to light.
For Eva, who studied filmmaking at NYU, the documentary was also a way to get close to her granddaughter and daughter, who decided she needed to stop living with her “larger than life” mother when she was only 12. Says Michael Vetter, one of the film’s cinematographers: “She came to Mexico with no money and no experience but the family was reunited, like she wanted. The film was born and we were all its midwives.”
What emerges is an intimate portrait, in the director’s words, “on sharing, daring and being grateful…and also a film about self-discovery: a way to explore what we judge…and what we choose to forgive.” That Flores’ extreme physical condition has not kept him from living a fulfilled life is a direct challenge to all of us to examine and get beyond our own prejudices and limitations.
Natasha Senjanovic
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