Coapa Heights: The Movie That Never Existed and That We All Dreamed Of
By 1999 I had already finished school, and my days were split between work and the gym all week long. The weekend held only one sacred appointment: the video club. I came and went in an old red Atlantic, my first car, the kind that would stall if you drove through a puddle. It was the era of video clubs, and every Friday I rented four movies to watch at a leisurely pace on Saturday and Sunday. Coapa Heights was born in those same years and never made it into the video clubs. It was shot on video. It was an experimental, underground film that found distribution only in the legendary El Chopo market in Mexico City. From there it resurfaced and survived, years later, thanks to the internet. What’s curious is that Coapa Heights, despite its almost imperceptible existence, ended up having a later impact that surpassed any money it could have generated. I’m sure there wasn’t much money involved. It was a labor of love for its producer, Edwarda Gurrola, and its director, Yibrán Asuad. I...
