(Los Angeles, CA) – The new documentary SHOT IN MEXICO tells the story of Brad Will, a young American activist-journalist who was killed in 2006 while filming a violent rebellion in Oaxaca, Mexico, and the tangled aftermath of his death. Brad’s murder, captured on his own camera, ignited worldwide attention and put a spotlight on corruption and injustice in Mexico. In the crime’s wake, two families from different sides of the border are tested. A film by Xochitl Dorsey (15: A Quinceañera Story) and Monica Campbell, SHOT IN MEXICO premieres on WORLD Channel on Friday, March 2, 2018 at 9PM ET (check local listings.)
Raised in a middle class Illinois suburb, Brad Will was always an iconoclast; he became a journalist/activist, participated in a squatters community on New York’s Lower East Side, hosted a pirate radio show, and began reporting on social injustices through Indymedia, a grassroots collective of independent journalists. In October of 2006, he travelled to Oaxaca to report on a teacher’s strike that had turned into a massive populist uprising, pitting citizens against armed government forces. While covering the violence, he was shot and killed.
SHOT IN MEXICO reveals how Brad’s death thrust two families, from two different worlds, into an ongoing web of cover-ups and deceit. In the United States, Brad’s parents leveraged their influence to demand a true investigation in Mexico — a campaign that took them to the halls of the United States Congress. In Mexico, Liliana Martinez fought from her impoverished neighborhood in Oaxaca for the release of her husband, Juan Manuel, an innocent man jailed for Brad’s murder.
A portrait of a passionate young man and a harrowing reminder of the many journalists who have fallen victim to the ongoing violence in Mexico, SHOT IN MEXICO will be available for free streaming beginning on March 2, 2018 on worldchannel.org and all station-branded PBS platforms including PBS.org, and on PBS apps for iOS, Android, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Chromecast.
About the Filmmakers
Xochitl Dorsey (Director/Producer) is a director, producer and editor of documentary and narrative films based in California and New York. She recently produced the four-part HBO documentary series 15: A Quinceañera Story and the HBO feature documentary The Latin Explosion. Xochitl holds an MFA in Directing & Production from UCLA and an MA in Latin American Studies from NYU. Her documentary and narrative work has appeared on HBO, PBS, the BBC, NPR, Showtime, MSNBC and mun2, as well as film festivals around the country. She was nominated for a 2011 Imagen Award for her television documentary, The New America. She also received the Directors Guild of America (DGA) award for Best Short Film in the Latino Category and won the Mercury Latino Lens Short Film Challenge for her film Tears & Tortillas. In addition, Xochitl was a fellow of the Tribeca Film Festival All Access Program, the CPB/PBS Producers Academy and the CPB/National Minority Consortia (NMC).
Monica Campbell (Producer) is a senior editor at The World, a national public radio news show and co-production of Public Radio International, WGBH and the BBC World Service. She focuses on immigration coverage in the United States, working with a network of journalists throughout the country to uncover how shifting demographics are changing everything from culture to politics. Before joining The World, Campbell reported internationally from Europe and Afghanistan and, from 2003 to 2009, from Latin America and the Caribbean. She also served as the Mexico representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists. In 2009-10, she was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. Campbell has a master’s degree in Latin American Studies from New York University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Jose State University. She is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
About Latino Public Broadcasting
Latino Public Broadcasting (LPB) is the leader in the development, production, acquisition and distribution of non-commercial educational and cultural media that is representative of Latino people, or addresses issues of particular interest to Latino Americans. These programs are produced for dissemination to public broadcasting stations and other public telecommunication entities. Latino Public Broadcasting provides a voice to the diverse Latino community throughout the United States and is funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Latino Public Broadcasting produces the series VOCES, PBS’s signature Latino arts and culture documentary showcase and the only ongoing national television series devoted to exploring and celebrating the rich diversity of the Latino cultural experience. Between 2009 and 2016, LPB programs won over 85 awards, including the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award as well as two Emmys, two Imagen Awards and the Sundance Film Festival Award for Best Director, Documentary. In addition, LPB has been the recipient of the Norman Lear Legacy Award and the NCLR Alma Award for Special Achievement – Year in Documentaries. For more information, visit www.lpbp.org.
About WORLD Channel
The WORLD Channel delivers the best of public television’s nonfiction, news and documentary programming. The channel features original content by and about diverse communities to U.S. audiences through local public television stations and streaming online at worldchannel.org. WORLD reached 33.3 million unique viewers 18+ last year (52% adults 18-49) and over-indexes in key diversity demographics. Online, the WORLD Channel expands on broadcast topics and fuels dialogue across social media, providing opportunities for broad and diverse audience interaction. WORLD has won numerous national honors including an Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Award, Tellys, a Media for a Just Society Award, two Lesbian & Gay Journalist Awards, a Gracie, an Asian American Journalists Award and many others. WORLD Channel also won the Radio Television Digital News Association’s 2017 Kaleidoscope Award for its critically-acclaimed series, AMERICA REFRAMED and has received four National News & Documentary Emmy Nominations. WORLD is programmed by WGBH/Boston, in partnership with American Public Television and WNET/New York, and in association with PBS and National Educational Telecommunications Association. Funding for the WORLD Channel is provided by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Wyncote Foundation and The Kendeda Fund. For more information about The WORLD Channel, visit www.worldchannel.org
###
Contact:
CaraMar Publicity
Mary Lugo 770 623 8190 lugo@negia.net