2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Filmmaker: Border life crime-filled
Noted producer says factories exploit women
Amanda Johnson
Issue date: 9/19/07 Section: News
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"Traditionally it's been trafficking of drugs, but now it also now there is a new [kind of] trafficking - trafficking of human beings," Martinez Jitner said.
Women in these towns are being kidnapped, raped, tortured and sometimes sold into slavery, she said. The minority of bodies that are found weeks later often have their organs missing, she said.
In 2002, Martinez Jitner followed Eva Canseco from Tijuana to the U.S. in her documentary, "La Frontera." Canseco experienced the horrors of the factory life Martinez Jitner spoke about.
While filming the documentary, Martinez Jitner's tapes were stolen repeatedly; to the extent she hired a bodyguard to protect her camera. One of her assistants was abducted and beaten by the Juarez police, she said.
Martinez Jitner chose to continue filming her documentary, she said, feeling the need and duty to document Canseco's story and share it with audiences.
Canseco worked in a factory to earn money to pay off the taxes on her farm. She quickly realized, after moving to Tijuana, that "the worker is a slave."
With a face deeply scarred because the factory would not provide masks for its welders, Canseco received a pink slip.
At 30, she is too old for factory work, Martinez Jitner said. The managers in Juarez want younger workers with more nimble fingers.
The film focuses on her journey to the United States, where she hopes to seek out an opportunity to provide a better life for her family.
Martinez Jitner said she has been able to enact some change with her film.
She said she knows her documentary struck a chord with the factory managers because now workers aren't allowed to speak to journalists and filmmakers about their jobs. She said they must even sign confidentiality waivers to get hired.
Toward the end of her lecture Martinez Jitner showed a short clip of the opening scenes of her upcoming movie "Bordertown."
The film - due out later this year - features Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Lopez in the lead roles. Martinez Jitner served as the movie's executive producer. The movie will follow two journalists, Lopez and Banderas, as they travel to Juarez to investigate the disappearance of several women.
In the last fourteen years, more than 475 women in Juarez have been brutally murdered, Martinez Jitner said. More than 5,000 are still missing.
"People are worth more dead than alive," she said.
"Bordertown," which is mostly in Spanish and features English subtitles, is inspired on the story of a 14-year-old girl in Juarez who was raped by a bus driver and another man then left her for dead in a shallow grave.
The girl managed to climb out of the grave, received amnesty in the U.S. and identified the bus driver who raped her. But the Mexican authorities let the convicted rapist walk free, Martinez Jitner said.
Martinez Jitner encouraged the audience to visit amnestyusa.org/bordertown, a Web site Lopez launched, where users can download digital petitions asking the United Nations to put pressure on Mexico to end the violence against women, as well as encouraging the U.S. to push Mexican factories to set up safer working conditions.
Women in these towns are being kidnapped, raped, tortured and sometimes sold into slavery, she said. The minority of bodies that are found weeks later often have their organs missing, she said.
In 2002, Martinez Jitner followed Eva Canseco from Tijuana to the U.S. in her documentary, "La Frontera." Canseco experienced the horrors of the factory life Martinez Jitner spoke about.
While filming the documentary, Martinez Jitner's tapes were stolen repeatedly; to the extent she hired a bodyguard to protect her camera. One of her assistants was abducted and beaten by the Juarez police, she said.
Martinez Jitner chose to continue filming her documentary, she said, feeling the need and duty to document Canseco's story and share it with audiences.
Canseco worked in a factory to earn money to pay off the taxes on her farm. She quickly realized, after moving to Tijuana, that "the worker is a slave."
With a face deeply scarred because the factory would not provide masks for its welders, Canseco received a pink slip.
At 30, she is too old for factory work, Martinez Jitner said. The managers in Juarez want younger workers with more nimble fingers.
The film focuses on her journey to the United States, where she hopes to seek out an opportunity to provide a better life for her family.
Martinez Jitner said she has been able to enact some change with her film.
She said she knows her documentary struck a chord with the factory managers because now workers aren't allowed to speak to journalists and filmmakers about their jobs. She said they must even sign confidentiality waivers to get hired.
Toward the end of her lecture Martinez Jitner showed a short clip of the opening scenes of her upcoming movie "Bordertown."
The film - due out later this year - features Antonio Banderas and Jennifer Lopez in the lead roles. Martinez Jitner served as the movie's executive producer. The movie will follow two journalists, Lopez and Banderas, as they travel to Juarez to investigate the disappearance of several women.
In the last fourteen years, more than 475 women in Juarez have been brutally murdered, Martinez Jitner said. More than 5,000 are still missing.
"People are worth more dead than alive," she said.
"Bordertown," which is mostly in Spanish and features English subtitles, is inspired on the story of a 14-year-old girl in Juarez who was raped by a bus driver and another man then left her for dead in a shallow grave.
The girl managed to climb out of the grave, received amnesty in the U.S. and identified the bus driver who raped her. But the Mexican authorities let the convicted rapist walk free, Martinez Jitner said.
Martinez Jitner encouraged the audience to visit amnestyusa.org/bordertown, a Web site Lopez launched, where users can download digital petitions asking the United Nations to put pressure on Mexico to end the violence against women, as well as encouraging the U.S. to push Mexican factories to set up safer working conditions.