(Tom) This week on a brand new season of Arizona Illustrated, a kaleidoscopic look at the complicated borderlands.

(Jack) We should think very carefully about how we interact with these landscapes and how one day can undo millennia of evolution.

(Tom) Unlock the life-changing power of literacy through books.

(Kara) Our test scores show.

Giving our kids the time and space to read has really paid off.

(Tom) A photography space dedicated to learning and free of mansplaining.

(Cora) It doesn't have to be this dominating, competitive ladder that we're climbing.

We're all growing together as a group.

(Tom) And check out the best of contemporary Mexican cinema at the historic Fox Theatre.

(Bonnie) It always comes back to story when they really have the ability to connect us to our shared humanity.

(Tom) Hello and welcome to the season premiere of Arizona Illustrated.

I'm Tom McNamara.

You know, this is the 11th season now of this magazine-style format of the show with me as your host.

But Arizona Illustrated has been on the air for more than 40 years.

Today we're joining you from the Catalyst Maker Space in the Tucson Mall.

Arizona Public Media has recently partnered with the Southern Arizona Arts and Cultural Alliance, which runs this space and will be host to many community outreach events here over the coming year.

We hope you'll come say hi to us at one of our events.

So please be on the lookout for those.

[Music] Photographer Luke Takata and naturalist Jack Dash have collected plants, taken photos, and recorded oral histories along the Arizona-Sonora borderlands since 2017.

They've documented myriad people who live and work there to better understand this 42-mile stretch known as the Atascosa borderlands.

♪ SERENE MUSIC (Luke) Atascosa Borderlands brings together over 10,000 medium format film photographs, along with about 1,200 botanical specimens.

And the idea is to create a living archive that's dedicated to this area that we refer to as the Atascosa Highlands, which is a series of mountain ranges that run between Nogales to the east and the town of Sasabe to the west.

[Jack] We're attempting to collect physical specimens of every or almost every species that occurs out here, both native and non-native.

And of course it's nice to focus on really beautiful native plants, but you know a non-native plant like this aster growing out of this disturbed area close to the border wall access road is really interesting because these sites of disturbance become vectors for non-native and potentially invasive plants to come into this landscape.

And they act as ground zero for the spread of these non-native plants that will ripple out into the surrounding landscape.

Floristic surveys are really useful, but one of the things that often gets left out of these types of studies is why the ecology is the way that we see it today.

Oftentimes it ignores that human element that has played an integral role in shaping that ecology.

And when you bring in that human element and combine that with the data that you're able to extract from a botanical checklist, you really get a clearer picture of how specific land management practices are creating that ecology that you're looking at.

(Luke) A major part of this project is the oral history interviews that we've conducted.

(VO1) And in those days, of course, the government didn't really have much of a problem with the, you know, immigration problems.

People came and went as they pleased.

(Luke) There's always been a lot of energy and people and plants and animals passing through this area.

And to me, it's becoming less of the borderlands than it is the heartland of the southwest in this part of Mexico because it's where everything's converging.

It's the place where the jaguar and the black bear share the same trail.

(VO2) Then it wasn't until I got out here that I began to realize the history that was out that was out here that I was not aware of before.

I was not taught anything in school about the Buffalo Soldiers.

(Luke) All of those oral history excerpts are brought together with original field recordings and instrumentation by musicians Gus Tammi-Zuka and Patricio Coronado.

And it's really this immersive sound experience where we're taking you into this space.

(Jack) So these are the plants we're looking for.

It's a Coryphantha recurvata, the Santa Cruz Beehive cactus.

It's a state-listed rare plant and in the United States it's only known in any numbers from the Atascosa Highlands.

They're really healthy but they're right above this area where there's all of this erosion from the border wall construction that's really changed the hydrology of this area.

You know, who knows what the fate of these plants will be as the erosion continues to pick up on these rock faces that they grow in.

These are just some of the most beautiful ones I've ever seen up there.

In a single afternoon you could wipe out that entire genetic lineage and once that's gone you can't get it back.

So we should think very carefully about how we interact with these landscapes and how one day can undo millenia of evolution and adaptation in these plant species.

(Luke) This body of work, because of its collaborative, transdisciplinary scope, is accessible to so many more people than it would have been had it just be a flora or a body of documentary photography.

What we have in this project is an opportunity to really bring together people from very divergent, different backgrounds around the same body of work to have conversations with people that they might not otherwise have and to also exchange information across fields in a way that just in our particular time and place feels so important.

(Jack) When you're looking at these landscapes, they are very complex.

They're spaces of natural beauty.

They're also spaces where people die on a weekly or even daily basis because they are forced into those environments.

And so they really are complex because I can choose to go there.

Other people are forced to go there.

You know, this is a national forest.

We think of national forests as these incredible recreational sites or sites of natural beauty.

And the fact that this landscape is managed by our federal government is both the thing that has preserved in many ways this ecological beauty.

And yet in an era of increasing border militarization, it is also possibly the greatest threat to the continued biodiversity of these environments.

(Luke) A lot of times when we see regions like the Atascosa Highlands represented, at least within a photographic context, it's oftentimes through coverage in traditional news media outlets.

And I think with this project, we've just had an opportunity to go so much deeper in a way that just quite frankly, a traditional news outlet just wouldn't have the access or ability to do.

And I think that richness is a richness that is much more reflective of this physical area in real life.

(Tom) Books Save Lives believes that the right book at the right time can transform minds and heal literacy trauma.

Daphne Russell's introspective reading methods can help kids and adults alike by offering tools for literacy growth and self-confidence.

♪ EMOTIONAL PIANO MUSIC (Daphne) In 1987, I had this professor in their elementary education classes, and she said, "Every kid deserves a reading journey."

I'm like, "Oh my gosh, that's a great idea."

So I came back home, I got a job, and now I was with, you know, 10, 11, 12, 13-year-old kids, and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, what do I do now?"

So a friend of mine said, "Read The Book Thief."

And I started reading it and went, [ GASP ] Marcus Sousaq wrote an entire book just to say book save lives.

And I cried for half an hour.

I mean- I mean legitimate bawling, like grieving the teacher that I was and how ineffective I was and how I didn't do what I should have done.

[ TO CLASS ] - actually saying any words, right?

(Kara) I met Daphne through my new teacher mentor.

It was my first year teaching, and I had eighth and seventh graders, and was like, "Hey, I wanna take you to this classroom."

And we walked in, and I was like floored, because her kids were just like my kids, but they were all reading.

(Jennifer) She was coming into classrooms and saying, "Is there anything I can do to help you?"

And I said, "What I really need is for my kids to not hate reading.

They have no motivation whatsoever."

(Briauna) She reached kids the way I sought to reach kids as a relatively new teacher, and I like to try things, so I tried it, and it worked.

(Daphne) The way that I ended up teaching was introspectively.

So my kids thought about themselves.

I found that most kids kind of stopped in second grade, because of very common practices.

The teacher's showing you pictures and words, and you're like, "Yes, I can do it."

Then in second grade, the teacher takes away the pictures, and then tells you "just picture it in your mind."

Now the pictures are gone, and the child doesn't have any crutch left to use to develop the words in their head, so they get stuck.

[ CLASSROOM CHATTER ] What's happening today is that we're gonna have two kids who have not been successful reading, so we're trying to spark a little bit of light and finding a book that's in their vocabulary range, and then igniting the connections.

Well, tell us about how you got to this point.

(Max P.) I feel like I did not feel like reading anymore.

It just came to something that doesn't really excite me anymore.

(Max C.) I'd get into a book, and I'd read it for a couple days, and then I would just lose interest into it really quick.

(Jennifer) What I've found through research is that there's three things that every kid needs to become a reader.

Number one, making connections.

If they can see that same character going through similar circumstances.

(Max P.) I don't look at it the way like, oh, this is making a connection with me.

I normally just look at the movie, or read the book, or whatever it is, as just something entertaining, like, will it entertain me.

-(Daphne) It's separate.

These aren't separate from you.

It's almost like when you pick one, the missing piece is you.

So when you read a sentence, you go, "oh, well that reminds me of-" because your brain and what you think and the images inside of here are better than anything someone could draw.

When you're pitching a kid something that they hated and you're trying to convince them, you don't have to hate it still.

So really what you're doing is committing to me if you want for one book, and then you come back on Monday and then we talk again and see if it works.

(Jennifer) The second thing that they need is the time to read.

(Kara) Our test scores show giving our kids the time and the space to read has really paid off.

(Daphne) He actually finished the book as soon as he left us last week.

(Max P.) The bell rang as soon as I went back so I was in third period.

And I finished that book in that period and I came back.

I came back to see if you guys are still here, -Really?

-and Mrs. Trowbridge told me that you guys just left.

-Okay, so what happened during- with that book at that time?

-I was able to make like more connections than I would, not a lot, but like maybe two or three more.

(Daphne) And you saw the light starting to go on inside of him.

And now that he has made them, he recognizes the work it takes to make them, but also the benefit of making them.

(Max P.) It just made me very happy that I was able to finally make one.

I'm feeling a little bit more confident that I can do it.

And I feel that as more connections I make, I can feel more confident.

(Max C.) During my classes, I started reading the book -(Daphne) Yeah?

-a little more, and I started liking the book a lot.

(Daphne) Give us an example of a connection that really helped you.

-Like he was with his grandma and that connected to me 'cause when I was younger, my grandma took care of me a lot.

(Daphne) Aww.

I was with my grandma a lot and that k- I kind of made a little connection with that.

How does it feel when you make a connection?

-I don't know, it kind of feels good because I've never really been able to have done that before, -Yeah.

-and like now I just- it kind of feels good.

(Daphne) If he could just keep making those connections, he's going to feel great.

(Jennifer) It's self-efficacy, your belief in yourself that you can do something.

(Briauna) They feel empowered to read the word "problems," or read aloud in class, or be a leader in class, because they're able to do that through books.

(Daphne) If a book can get a kid to care about themselves, to look into themselves, taking responsibility for themselves, it can happen in any school, in any home, anywhere, at all.

You just have to believe in books and in kids.

♪ HAPPY MUSIC ♪ (Tom) Femme Photo Club invites women and non-binary photographers of all proficiencies into a safe space without the burden of mansplaining to develop their skills whether they're working with a top-of-the-line camera or their cell phone.

I like this like long path of light, so I'm trying to get it to like lead people - lead people's eyes to the edge of the frame.

My body is gonna be interrupting it.

[ FILM ROLL ADVANCES ] Alright, one, two... [ SHUTTER CLICKS ] Ugh, it looks so good.

♪ SOFT UPBEAT ELECTRONICA (Cora) A typical meeting we usually get to the space, do some intros and say what brings you to Photo Club.

[ MEMBERS INTRODUCE THEMSELVES ] After we do intros we have a short lesson that After we do intros we have a short lesson that can be like anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes.

There's usually a visual aspect to it, whether it be a PowerPoint or books like photography books that the artists bring in.

After the lesson we typically just break off into little groups or partners and do a lab that implements the lessons that we learned.

(Karina) I really do love self-portraiture, but it's hard to admit that because it [ SHUTTER CLICKS ] feels like an ego-centric thing.

But when you come down to it, it's more about like being able to like express yourself the way that you feel from the inside out, and I think that's like super valuable because in this world it's a lot, it's really hard to have your voice heard.

♪ SERIOUS ELECTRONICA It's just really valuable to see other people around you striving to do the same thing and it's a huge motivating factor for me to be able to feed off of that energy and not only just because it allows us to take images that we're proud of but also because it has a greater meaning in what we want our society to look like.

(Cora) I went to film school and my friend Katie, who also went to film school, we just decided sometime early last year that we wanted to create a space where we can continually practice and like hold each other accountable for practicing regularly.

We met up one day at Reid Park and were scouting a location and we wanted to have a meeting for femme photographers.

a meeting for femme photographers.

We decided to put out the invitation to the community through Instagram and there just was a larger response than what we expected there would be.

It just kind of snowballed from there.

[ LAUGHTER ] Having a femme-centered space is just inherently less competitive, to me at least.

It's just so nurturing and supportive and we all just get so excited when we post our photos and when we see improvement in our work.

And it just doesn't have to be this dominating, competitive ladder that we're climbing.

We're all growing together as a group collectively.

I've been doing photography for over a decade now - um - and there's a lot of reasons I wanted to become a cinematographer but I think one of the main reasons I wanted to work in film was because I feel like photography was a lot lonelier.

It was more individual and as much as I do appreciate that, what I loved about working in film was the teamwork aspect of it all.

I love being part of a team and feeling like your teammates are working toward a specific goal to lift you up, and...

I've gotten back into photography now a lot more because of Photo Club, because it kind of exactly is that.

It's just this beautiful community-based thing [ SHUTTER CLICKS ] I just have my camera and I thought it'd be really cool to just capture myself sitting with the lines because I really like how it's very structured on its own.

I kind of have this vision of trying to get my hair flowing.

I think where I'm kind of struggling is getting that close-up that I want but that's what the point is of this is to kind of figure out, get some shots.

Okay, this isn't working now I can adjust to try something else.

(Karina) The other day, we had some really beautiful bouquets of flowers, and the models were doing sword fights with them.

[LAUGHS ] Or like...

Being in all these really cool, different environments, like an adobe house that's just filled with musical instruments and being able to zoom in on parts of somebody that you don't normally get to see images of.

It's just really fun to be able to take a second to envision something in your own-in your own voice.

And I think that's a really cool thing about Femme Photo Club is that when you see an image posted on Instagram or in the Google Drive, you could kind of automatically tell which photographer it was that took that image because it's stamped with their own character and their own voice.

Every time I go to Femme Photo Club, there's this - um - lack of pressure that I feel.

It's so free and it almost makes me feel like, "Oh, this is just fun and games.

This isn't serious business.

We're just like having fun and hanging out."

(Karina) A lot of my life I've just been selling myself short with photography and not really interested in taking the educational route.

But then Femme Photo Club, it was just like automatically like my guards were completely down and it was just really a natural process into learning manual photography because I had never done that before and it was just love at first club meeting.

[ KARINA LAUGHS ] [ SHUTTER CLICKS ] (Tom) Every month you can celebrate the diversity of Mexican cinema the historic Fox Theatre.

Cinema Tucsón is an affordable series that showcases US premieres, classical and contemporary films along with conversations with the filmmakers all for the enjoyment of Southern Arizona's diverse moviegoers.

♪ LIGHTHEARTED SAMBA (Audience Member) I love Cinema Tucsón because we can gather to see an amazing cinema and film production from Mexico.

This is a really good opportunity to see something that's international and very well known.

So I'm very excited to be here and very excited to watch the movie.

[ WIND AND TRAIN NOISES ] (Vicky) Why is the subject of migrant familes so important to you?

(Carlos) I believe that I am very attracted not towards, let's say the subject matter of migration, but talking about stories of families- all together.

And all the films I've made are about families.

(Vicky) Cinema Tucsón was an outgrowth of something that Carlos and I did previously for about 17 years, which was called Tucson Ciné Mexico, which was the first film festival in the United States to showcase contemporary Mexican cinema.

And after COVID, we decided instead to present it as an annual, monthly film series.

And the beautiful Fox Tucson Theatre gave us a home here.

(BONNIE) The Fox is committed to it in part because of our history as a film palace to highlight a bold film experience.

This particular program here at the Fox is such a beautiful encapsulation of the kind of power of partnership.

♪ UPLIFITING ACOUSTIC GUITAR ♪ (Vicky) We are selecting films that we think that our audience wants to see.

And they do want to see horror, comedies, as well as the sort of more challenging esoteric films.

(Carlos) We've been able to showcase films almost in their world premiere right at the beginning of a festival run.

And, in some cases, we've also featured older films to also create a dialogue between the new films and the long-tradition of Mexican cinema.

You know, for me there was a political side to all of this.

This wonderful theater from 1929, when it was built, the Mexican community was not welcome here.

So, you know, it's a very fragmented city and there were specific theaters for Mexican cinema around here.

So I think it's very poetic in a political sense that the Mexican cinema is now the centerpiece here in this wonderful theater.

(Carlos) I'm a Mexican filmmaker.

I come here for the screening of "Home Is Somewhere Else."

Instead of being a storybook, it's a story film.

The audio comes out from the real protagonist of their stories telling from their perspective what does it feel to live in the US.

with the fear of family separation.

In Mexico, what we see is the absence of those members of the family that are not there in the U.S.

So it was kind of talking about the emotional cost of migration in Mexico.

And I always felt it was incomplete until we told the story of the experience in the US.

♪ UPLIFTING ACOUSTIC GUITAR ♪ We decided that we were going to tell the stories from the point of view of the young members of these families.

It was very clear that we wanted to do this with animation from the start.

You can protect identities of those who are vulnerable.

We can make a film that would be more attractive for young audiences, and you can use animation to go inside the minds of those who are telling the story.

(Bonnie) I mean, for me, it always comes back to story.

I think of the stories we choose to elevate when they really have the ability to connect us to our shared humanity.

So those are the things that for me are exciting about film as a genre, and maybe about every, you know, every form of art.

(Rafael) It's extremely important to understand each other, to listen to each other, to respect each other, and why not?

Let's try love each other too.

(Audience Memeber) Cine Tucsón tries to build a bridge to incorporate, to celebrate, other cultures and other peoples.

[ APPLAUSE ] Thanks so much.

♪ UPLIFTING ACOUSTIC GUITAR ♪ (Tom) Thank you for joining us on our season premiere of Arizona Illustrated.

We're very excited to share the stories our team has been working on all summer with you.

I'm Tom McNamara and we'll see you again next week.