Robert Rodriguez' $7,000-budget groundbreaking El Mariachi was the film that launched one of the top directors of our time. Rodriguez wrote the script while participating as a lab rat, and when he got out he had a story, a little money and a clear vision. With next to nothing—the audio was recorded on cassette—he created an indie filmmaking masterpiece. See it—the first of Rodriguez' Mexico Trilogy—along with the final installment, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, which features Johnny Depp as a rogue CIA agent who gets his eyes gouged out. The double feature is part of American Cinematheque's “Desperado with a Camera: The Cinema of Robert Rodriguez” series, which honors the guerrilla filmmaker.