Saturday 06 December 2008, San José, Costa
Rica
Q&A: "I Don’t Believe a
12-Year-Old Was Born to
Kill"
Raúl Gutiérrez
interviews CHRISTIAN
POVEDA, director of ''La
vida loca''
SAN SALVADOR (IPS) - A
group of around 20
people settle into their
seats in a small
conference room in a
hotel in the Salvadoran
capital. They are here
to watch "La Vida Loca",
a 90-minute documentary
about the Pandilla 18
youth gang, directed and
co-produced by
French-Spanish filmmaker
Christian Poveda.
As the film unrolls,
numerous members of the
audience -- former
Pandilla 18 members,
activists, international
aid workers -- are
visibly overcome by
emotion.
"People are left shaken.
The movie is like a
hammer to the head,"
said Poveda, a
photographer with
lengthy experience as a
war correspondent, who
sat down with IPS after
the film to talk about
his motivation for
making the documentary
and the experience of
spending over a year
with the gang members.
"La Vida Loca", a
French-Spanish-Mexican
co-production, is a
grippingly naked
portrait of the savagery
and humanity of a group
of gang members living
in the neighbourhood of
La Campanera, located in
Soyapango, one of the
outlying districts of
San Salvador hardest hit
by violence and crime.
The film exposes the
plight of young people
caught up in gangs,
which are "feared and
hated" yet at the same
time "strangely
captivating." It also
reflects the
marginalisation, family
dysfunction and social
rejection that gang
members typically suffer
"from the day they are
born."
The documentary has
already been screened at
film festivals in San
Sebastián, Spain and
Morelia, Mexico, and
will be featured at the
Havana International
Film Festival in
December.
Poveda, 52, was born in
Algeria, a French colony
at the time, to Spanish
parents who had fled
there in exile during
the Spanish Civil War.
He grew up in the
immigrant ghettos of
Paris, and as an adult
worked as a news
photographer covering
armed conflicts in the
Western Sahara, Lebanon,
Iran, Iraq, Argentina,
Chile and Peru.
"At least 15,000 child
and young adult gang
members are victims of a
system that shows no
forgiveness, a system
that has led them to
turn into criminals and
killers and to lead
miserable lives. I
believe that nobody
cares about these
youngsters. They are a
lost generation," said
Poveda.
"Is there any kind of
prevention work being
done in this country to
keep young people from
joining gangs? My answer
is, no. Is there any
other means of tackling
the problem of gangs
used in this country
aside from repression?
Once again, the answer
is no," he added.
Here are some excerpts
from Poveda’s
conversation with IPS:
IPS: What motivated
you to make a film about
gangs?
CHRISTIAN POVEDA:
I was motivated by the
marginalisation of
immigrant youth in
France, where I grew up.
While there is no
comparison between the
rates of violence in
France and El Salvador,
the poverty and
marginalisation are the
same, and these are what
ultimately lead young
people to commit crime.
Unlike the gangs in
Colombia, Brazil or
Venezuela, the
Salvadoran gangs, as
well as controlling
entire neighbourhoods,
have branches throughout
the entire country and
very strict and
well-defined rules of
operation, and are
highly organised. They
are genuine armies.
That’s why my idea was
to take a close look at
the worst of the youth
problem in El Salvador
and then show it as an
example in Europe to
say: "Look, if we don’t
change our youth
policies, this is where
we could end up in 15
years."
IPS: What experiences
had the biggest impact
on you?
CP: Sharing 16
months of my life with
young people and then
watching them die, and
having to film them
again. Until now, I had
photographed a lot of
dead people, but I
didn’t know them. I had
even done it during the
civil war in El Salvador
(1980-1992).
But filming someone dead
when you’ve known them
is completely different.
Like "Wizard", a gang
member who’s one of the
"stars" of the film, and
was killed a few months
before we finished
shooting -- I used to
see her in the bakery
every day.
When you interview them,
you realise how much
hatred they feel towards
society, and they show
that hatred through the
most violent actions
possible. But you also
learn that many of them
live in a world of
alcohol and drugs, and
have suffered since the
day they were born from
marginalisation,
poverty, broken
families, abandonment,
abuse, police repression
and rejection.
I have never felt the
sensation of being in
hell, but I felt that
the people I was filming
really are in hell.
IPS: How did the
filmmaking process work?
CP: We spent around
16 months making the
film. I went to
Campanera every day,
sometimes to film,
sometimes just to spend
time with them. The
bakery, where we shot
several hours of
footage, was like a sort
of meeting place. Most
of the gang members who
appear in the film spent
a lot of their time in
it or around it.
IPS: Why Pandilla 18
and not Mara Salvatrucha
(the most notorious
Salvadoran gang)?
CP: I was in
negotiations with both
gangs. I met with
leaders from both of
them for several months.
I even visited almost
all of the prisons where
the top leaders are
being held, to talk
about the movie. But in
the end, the Mara
Salvatrucha leaders
turned down the offer.
In the meantime, I went
to Soyapango to talk
with the leaders of
Pandilla 18 and we
reached an agreement:
the film would be shot
over a long period of
time, and would capture
the human side of the
gangs.
IPS: Did making the
film change your
perception of the gangs?
CP: Not really. It
confirmed the perception
I had of these
organisations, of the
social problems
involved. They have
built a genuine,
well-structured society,
with a democratic system
to elect their leaders,
at the local, municipal
and national level.
IPS: After spending
over 16 months with the
gang members, what are
the human aspects that
especially stood out for
you?
CP: They consider
themselves soldiers and
defend the gang with
honour, and even with
their own lives. I
wanted to look into the
human aspect, and
explore that other side:
who they are, where they
come from, the sense of
brotherhood among them,
their feelings and
emotions, their
families. Of course, the
film isn’t meant to
portray them as little
angels, either.
I don’t believe a
12-year-old child was
born to kill. A social
process has led him to
become a killer at that
age. And that is what we
have to try to
understand. Only then
will it be possible to
reduce the rate of
violence. Where there is
no poverty, there is no
violence. But here they
are trying to find a
solution by sending in
battalions of police to
crack down on the young
people and by building
more jails to lock them
up.
IPS: What are you
plans for the
documentary now?
CP: It’s a tool to
stimulate debate, and
that gives me a great
deal of satisfaction.
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