Events stir up interest in movie

Many protesters wear T-shirts with the logo from 'A Day Without a Mexican.'
ASSOCIATED PRESS
As activists urge work and school boycotts May 1 in what's being called "A Day Without Immigrants," a film with a similar title and the same message -- America needs immigrants -- is enjoying a revival.
The 2004 independent film "A Day Without a Mexican" made less than $5 million in theaters, but rentals are up and a new ad campaign is in the works. Some protesters are even sporting T-shirts with the film's logo, a silhouette of a man in a sombrero carrying a duffel bag.
"There's been a lot of talk about the film -- it has served as an organizing tool, a kind of reference," said Yareli Arizmendi, who co-wrote the script and whose husband, Sergio Arau, directed the film.
Arizmendi first noticed renewed interest in the film when she went to protests in downtown Los Angeles in March. Not only were people wearing the film's T-shirt, others carried banners with the logo and some chanted variations on a key film line: "How do you make the invisible visible?"
In the last month, rentals of the movie are up 17 percent compared to the month before, said Leigh Savidge, CEO of Xenon Pictures, the distributor.
"It was the right film pegged to the zeitgeist right now," he said, adding that Xenon is planning new billboard ads and radio spots, and will give away T-shirts at upcoming rallies.
Another film
An HBO film titled "Walkout" also was prophetic. The feature dramatizes when thousands of Latino students in Los Angeles boycotted classes over poor-quality schools. It debuted March 18, a week before hundreds of thousands, including many students, marched in Los Angeles."A Day Without a Mexican" is a mockumentary showing what happens when mysterious fog surrounds California and all the Latinos -- one-third of all residents -- disappear. Arizmendi plays a television news reporter who is the only surviving Latino.
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