Christian Poveda

Christian Poveda

Christian Poveda, also known as Christian Gregorio Poveda Ruiz (January 12, 1957, in Algiers, Algeria – September 2, 2009, in Tonacatepeque, El Salvador) was a Hispanic-French photojournalist and a film director.

Born to exiled Spanish parents in Algeria, he went to France with his family in 1961/2. He was assassinated in El Salvador, probably by a member of a mara.

La vida Loca is a documentary filmed by Poveda in El Salvador about the life of local gangs.

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.

The hand-held camera focus 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.

Christian Poveda was shot to death in Tonacatepeque, El Salvador on September 2, 2009. He was 52 years old.

It is alleged that certain police and gang members where unhappy of the Poveda's documentary. Poveda had promised his subjects that La vida Loca would not be realized 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 jailed for Poveda's death.

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Wikipedia