By LUCY VIRGEN
Two young journalists are talking after completing an assignment. “You should take the course on personal safety in danger zones; in your line of work, it would be very useful.” The other one agrees. Are they in the Middle East, Iran, Afghanistan? No. Shashenka Gutierrez is a photographer for a newspaper in Mexico City, and she covers mostly demonstrations.
Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, who have jointly directed five documentaries including the well-known Jesus Camp (2006), do not center the action of Endangered in “classic” war zones, where there is presumably an official declaration of conflict, but in cities and countries where a free press is assumed as a fact. They follow four journalists: Carl Juste in Miami, Patricia Campos Mello in Sao Paulo, Oliver Laughland on the Donald Trump campaign trail in several Midwestern cities in the U.S., and the aforementioned Sashenka Gutiérrez in Mexico City.
The media outlets for which they work may be considered moderate, very close to the center of the political spectrum. This should not make it necessary to take a course in personal safety. But in 2020 and 2021 circumstances have changed and the danger is there. These are years during which the president of a democratic country makes obscene jokes regarding a female journalist, while another ruler calls the press the enemy of the people, and yet another head of state, upon being shown photographs documenting the facts, says, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ewing and Grady exercise remarkable self-control to avoid being sensationalistic and melodramatic. The directors, who are also executive producers, practice the same serious journalism they admire in the making of this documentary. They could have shown more violence or its aftermath to convince the audience how dire the situation is. What is more notable is the respect they show for their subjects’ personal and working lives. Not all of them forget they are being filmed: some don’t move naturally, and one stops a conversation with his father to avoid crying on camera.
Ewing and Grady seem to be nostalgic for a more romantic age of journalism, portrayed in the opening sequence. An age where two young journalists brought down a President; when there were protests over a single journalist killed. Maybe due to this nostalgia they interweave a little of the reporters’ personal stories, though their subjects always demure, saying “we should not be the story, we should tell the story and portray it.” The weakest point in the film’s structure is the use of the split screen. This effect is only necessary when you see the author and his photographs, the rest of the time it feels gimmicky and diminishes the images, taking power away from them.
Free press and its indispensable role in a democracy are at the center of the documentary. Around this conceit there is the economic pressure on the written press, illustrated by the important newspapers that closed even before the pandemic. On the other hand, there are the attacks by governments, either directly or de facto by not offering protection, or turning a blind eye and giving perpetrators complete impunity in the wake of these aggressions.
And then, there are the organized criminal groups. From the Proud Boys to the drug cartels, which consider the press to be a hindrance and have no scruples shoving them aside. Is there hope? Both the main characters and the crew finished filming unscathed and in good health, no small feat. Patricia Campos Mello won a lawsuit for defamation of character against Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. So yes, there is hope.
According to the association Reporters Without Borders, from January to August 2022 fourteen journalists were killed in Mexico — more than in Ukraine or Yemen for the same period. Endangered is not entertainment, it is a call to reclaim the freedom of press we all need.
Directors: Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Producers: Tina Nguyen, Alex Takats, Paula Monaco Felipe
Executive producers: Nancy Abraham, Ronan Farrow, Lisa Heller, Heidi Ewing, Rachel Grady
Cinematography: Alex Takats, Gustavo Almeida, Miguel Tovar
Editing: J.D. Marlow, Ashley Moradipour
Music: T. Griffin
Production companies: Loki Films, Ronan Production Group
Venue: Morelia Film Festival (International Documentaries)
In English
90 minutes
