La Jornada – Nomadland brings my everyday life to the screen; They captured it perfectly

A woman in her 60s loses everything. He embarks on a journey across the American West in his truck, where he will live. Find temporary work and discover a community of other people who live outside the system and on the road, from whom you learn basic survival and self-reliance skills, as well as a new appreciation for life.

This is the topic that addresses Nomad, Favorite Oscar and winner of English Bafta Awards, in which Best Picture and Director Chloe Chow was the second woman in history to win a Director Award.

Starring Frances McDormand, adapted from the nonfiction book Nomadland: Surviving America, Written by Jessica Broder, who narrates the life of a society without roots in the United States.

Many of the Bedouins who appear in the book are also in the film as different versions of themselves. Among them, 65-year-old Bob Wells, who, after his divorce and the death of his son, found solace in a stray life and has long been his advocate. “They understood it perfectly,” he said in an interview. The Independent. “I look at my life on the screen, which seemed very strange to me.

My first reaction was: ‘Fabulous, They have taken my life … this is how we live. There are some Bedouin principles. First of all, things are a burden. If we all started thinking about it, our lives and our world would be so much better. Let’s think first of generosity, that we need other people and vice versa … We have lived as a wanderer for millions of years under principles like travel, which is a good thing, and we have ideas bigger than my own. “

As Welles expressed his delight in appearing in an Academy Award-nominated film, Charlene Swanky had no idea what actress Frances McDormand was. The 78-year-old Kayaker has lived on the road for more than a decade and was more interested in having shoulder surgery than starring in a movie.

“My shoulder is the priority”

“I’ve never seen a Frances movie before, and her name didn’t mean anything to me,” he said. “When Chloe explained who they were and what the tape did, I said to her,“ I can’t, I don’t know what you’re talking about. My shoulders are the priority. I have no wounds and no place to stay.

He explained, “I said I had to know all of that.” I don’t know what your schedule is or when you’ll shoot or something like that. Chloe said, “We’ll be working soon.” And I said, “They love me enough that they’ll count from a schedule. My Business! “Okay, I’ll participate.”

Swanky interviewed McDormand in a reenactment of the Tramp Encounter, the largest congregation of nomads and van dwellers in America, founded by Wells. “I didn’t distinguish her from the other Bedouins who were there. One of them shouted, gesturing at her,“ Here he is. ”So I said,“ Well, if we’re going to work together tomorrow, I have to go and say hello to her. ”

“I got up to her, patted her shoulder and said, ‘I’m Swanky.” She turned and looked at me and said, “Swankie!” Enthusiastically, she grabbed me by the arm and pulled the crowd to speak with me. Seems like I was the movie star, the famous celebrity who was a fan of her with my head flying, I was standing there, speechless. I said I am sorry. I do not know who you are. I did not hear your name and did not see any of your films. She replied that it does not matter.

“I think she would love to be seen as a regular person, not as a star. She would love us to be treated as an equal. It must be cool for a celebrity to hang out like everyone else.”

When he finally saw the film, part New Western and part lyric, Swanky said, it was a strange experience, “Because what is in my daily life, there is nothing exceptional, extraordinary. I had to see her many times. When I saw her in IMAX, I said, “I think I have it now. I understand where Chloe was going.”

Wells hopes that the film’s success could attract new people to the nomadic way of life, or at least empty some of its mountains of material possessions. “It’s not an all-or-nothing life. It’s not like you have to drop everything and go to a truck and run away. You just have to start traveling, with advantages and disadvantages. So wherever they are, people can start doing it and their lives will be much better.” .