Reporting Back

When does increased visibility contribute to your chances of staying alive?

As a part of its San Francisco lineup, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival recently screened Reportero. This documentary chronicles the lives of a group of political journalists in Baja, California, who face death threats and other risks that are just as serious and bloody as the matters they report on.

By showcasing the reporters as individual people rather than numbers in a body count, the narrative stands out against the typical sensationalist drug war stories we often hear in the news. Reportero puts the events in perspective by bringing things down to the human level. There is less emphasis on blood and guts than on the work and ideals of the individual reporters. The film’s shots linger on the faces of the reporters themselves, and throughout the film we watch as they interact with others in everyday, mundane moments. Watching photojournalist Sergio Haro sit down to dinner with his wife, for example, gives us more insight into his character and makes it easier to relate to him. By portraying the reporters as ordinary people working to bring justice to light, the film de-sensationalizes the drug wars and offers a more realistic representation of the situation.

One unexpected benefit of representing these journalists as individuals in Reportero is that the reporters feel that they actually gain more protection. Through exposing their identities on a global scale, any murders or other wrongs against the journalists are made more visible as well. What if protecting human rights was always as easy as showing your face?

-Ali