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Christian Poveda

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Christian Poveda
Born
Christian Gregorio Poveda Ruiz

(1957-01-12)January 12, 1957
Algeria
DiedSeptember 2, 2009(2009-09-02) (aged 52)
Tonacatepeque, El Salvador
Cause of deathBallistic trauma
Occupation(s)Film director
Photojournalist
Known forMurder victim

Christian Gregorio Poveda Ruiz (January 12, 1957[1] – September 2, 2009), known as Christian Poveda, was a Hispanic-French photojournalist and film director.[2] He covered the world's conflict zones for more than 30 years.[3] Poveda's documentary film La Vida Loca [fr] (2008) is about two rival gangs in El Salvador.

Life

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Born to exiled Spanish parents in Algeria, he went to France with his family in 1961/2.

La Vida Loca

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La Vida Loca (The Crazy Life, 2008) is a documentary filmed by Poveda in El Salvador about the life of local gangs.[4]

For 16 months Poveda filmed the marginal young people of El Salvador divided between two rival gangs, the Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang.[5]

The hand-held camera focuses on daily life in a base cell of one of the gigantic maras, the la Campanera X-18 clique, composed of fifty engaging adolescents and young adults with an average age of 16 to 18.

The documentary was presented in the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2008.

Death

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Poveda was shot to death in Tonacatepeque, El Salvador on September 2, 2009; probably by a member of a mara.[6][7] He was 52 years old.[1]

It is alleged that certain police and gang members were unhappy with Poveda's documentary. He had promised his subjects that La Vida Loca would not be released in El Salvador, but he was powerless to prevent pirated copies from being sold. In 2011, ten gang members and a former police officer were convicted and sent to prison for Poveda's death.[8][9]

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner praised Poveda's work, calling him "a respected journalist, a professional who never hesitated to take great risks in the name of freedom of information."[10] Salvadoran Public Safety Minister Manuel Melgar said Poveda's killing was a "repugnant and reproachable criminal act".[10]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Fraser, Nick (6 September 2009). "Obituary: Christian Poveda". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  2. ^ "Christian Poveda". IMDb. Archived from the original on 2017-02-15. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  3. ^ "Christian Poveda: film maker whose latest work is La Vida Loca". The Times. 15 September 2009. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 2020-01-04 – via www.thetimes.co.uk.
  4. ^ "Film-maker killed in El Salvador". 3 September 2009. Retrieved 2020-01-04 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  5. ^ "'La Vida Loca' captures daily reality of El Salvador's gangs, or maras". 10 April 2009. Retrieved 2020-01-04.
  6. ^ Asesinan a documentalista que retrató pandillas Archived 2009-09-06 at the Wayback Machine (in Spanish)
  7. ^ Adams, Guy. "Did film director die for his art?" Archived 2018-11-17 at the Wayback Machine, The Independent, Sept. 4, 2009
  8. ^ Carroll, Rory (11 March 2011). "Killers of filmmaker Christian Poveda jailed". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 January 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Mixed feelings as court jails 11 people for Franco-Spanish filmmaker's murder". Reporters Without Borders. 10 March 2011. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2019.
  10. ^ a b "French film-maker shot dead in El Salvador". The Daily Telegraph. 4 September 2009. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2020-01-04 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
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