FilmWorks Entertainment: Illegal Debuts On DVD Mar. 19

The Hollywood studios have used illegal immigration and drug-dealing along the border that separates the United States and Mexico as the backdrop for such high-profile films as director Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic; Tony Richardson’s 1982 film, The Border (with Jack Nicholson and Harvey Keitel) and John Sayles’ brilliant 1996 bit of cinematic storytelling, Lone Star (Chris Cooper, Elizabeth Peña, Kris Kristofferson and Matthew McConaughey).

There are more, many more.  Big films, little films, arthouse, foreign — Touch of Evil, El Norte, A Better Life, La Misma Luna all spring to mind.   When you are talking about the human spirit, struggles, hopes, dreams, desperation, corruption … good and evil, you have a rich source to mine.

Now comes word from FilmWorks Entertainment that director Ric Dupont’s Illegal (aka: Ilegales) will be making its DVD debut on Mar. 19.  

Illegal has been working the film festival circuit these past couple of years (Sedona International Film Festival, Plaza Classic Film Festival in El Paso, Texas, the New York International Latino Film Festival, etc.) to sold-out performances, solid reviews and its share of festival awards, including Best Director laurels for Ric Dupont at the Naperville Independent Film Festival in 2011.  

Filmworks Entertainment is well-positioned to leverage this track record of film festival achievements and audience adulations into success at the next level … they’ve given themselves two and half months to work the street and pound the sales drum for this one.

Shirley Rumierk (left) In FilmWorks Entertainment's Illegal (Mar. 19)

Dupont, with a solid background in television news and documentary filmmaking, gives this dramatic tale — five interwoven stories — a rich cinéma vérité texture that draws us into the film, the stories and the people with a certain sense of intimacy … at times the actors literally disappear into their characters.   

Indeed, one can’t help but marvel at the performances of both Shirley Rumierk (Gun Hill Road, Game Change, etc. … plus the long-servicing host of the New York City Emmy-winning television show, Cool in Your Code) as Maribel, a lowly Juarez, Mexico waitress, with a moral code and sense of honor; duty that belies her station in life, and Luis Bordonada as Ariel, a migrant laborer who step by step finds himself going over to the dark side as the relentless pressures of time begin to consume him and his dreams of a better life.

Bonus goodies include a photo gallery and bonus footage.

To download this week's complete edition of the DVD and Blu-ray Release Report: DVD & Blu-ray Release Report