Bordertown, a film about the murders of the women of Ciudad Juarez, a US-Mexico bordertown near El Paso starring Jennifer Lopez, had a premiere screening at the Berlin Film Festival.
Although the film itself did not receive a warm critical reception in Berlin, the Prime Minister of East Timor and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta presented “J. Lo” with the “Artist for Amnesty” prize on February 14, for her work depicting the true story of the female factory workers who have been serially murdered by the hundreds since 1993. Many of these women had been held captive, tortured and sexually assaulted before being killed either by stangulation or by being beaten to death. It is estimated that over 400 feminicidios or “femicides” have taken place and despite both Mexican and American police investigations, the slayings continue.
In the film, Lopez plays the character of Lauren, an American journalist covering the killings. Antonia Banderas stars as Mexican journalist, Diaz, and the film is directed by Gregory Nava. Nava claims he received death threats during the shoot, and that Bordertown was not shot in Juarez because it was considered too dangerous. Those who run the factories where the women work—called maquiladoras—are fearful that if the murders are publicized, they will lose money.
“Juarez is the ideal place to kill a woman, because you’re certain to get away with it,” Astrid Gonzalez Davila, is quoted as saying on www.mayhem.net. Davila is a founder of the Citizens Committee Against Violence, an organization that works with the relatives of murder victims. “The failure to solve these killings is turning the city into a Mecca for homicidal maniacs.” On top of the large volumes of homicides, Juarez is also known for being a center for heroin and cocaine distribution. The reasons believed to be at the root of these killings include serial killers, the drug trade and a macho backlash against the changing economic status of Mexiacan women as they increasingly compete with men for jobs.
“What I thought (when I read the script) was, I couldn’t believe it,” Lopez was quoted as saying by www.vibe.com, “I really couldn’t believe this was going on. And then the more I found out about it the more real it became to me. It changed my life a lot. It changed the way I think.”
This article was published Monday, February 19, 2007.
