I learned last night that French filmmaker and photojournalist Christian Poveda was found shot to death in El Salvador on September 2. Four members of the Mara 18 gang and a Mexican police officer have been arrested in connection with his death.
Ordinarily, news like this barely registers on my radar – it’s a tragic reality that homicide happens every day. This story caught my attention, though, because I heard an NPR interview with Poveda earlier this year.
Poveda recently finished a documentary about the Mara 18 gang. The film, “la Vida Loca,” chronicles the desperate, hopeless lives of members of “la dieciocho,” an El Salvadoran branch of the gang. It’s scheduled for release September 30.
While newspapers financial struggles have garnered attention in recent months, Poveda’s killing reminds us that individual journalists have always faced challenges. Reporters, photographers and videographers have been defying violence and imprisonment to chronicle the human condition far longer than media moguls have endured financial discomfort.
View the trailer for Christian Poveda’s “la Vida Loca.” (Spanish with French subtitles)
View Poveda’s photos of Mara 18 on Flickr.
View more of Poveda’s photographs from Argentina, El Salvador, Chile and other locations.