Christian Poveda

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Christian Poveda (born January 12, 1955 in Algiers , † September 2, 2009 in Tonacatepeque , El Salvador ) was a Spanish - French photojournalist and documentary filmmaker .

life and work

Poveda was born in 1955 to Spanish parents who fled the civil war to Algeria . With the end of the Algerian War , the family moved to Paris in 1961/62 . Poveda initially worked as a photojournalist, u. a. with reports on the Saharawi freedom movement Frente Polisario , the US invasion of Grenada , the end of the military government in Argentina , the tenth anniversary of the coup in Chile and the civil war in El Salvador. He published in various international magazines including Paris Match , Newsweek and Time . His photos weren't about aesthetics for the moment. He was interested in the people he portrayed. He often lived with them for months during his research and kept in touch with them after the pictures were published.

He began his cinematic work in 1977 and devoted himself primarily to customs and traditions, but also to the conflicts in African and Latin American countries. Since 1990 he has been completely focused on filmmaking.

"La vida loca"

In 2008 he completed the documentary “La vida loca”, in which he portrayed the maras , criminal youth gangs who create a spiral of violence in El Salvador ( la vida loca , dt. The crazy life , is the motto of the maras). The recordings were made during a three-year stay in the country. The film has since been shown at various film festivals, including a. in San Sebastián (September 2008), at the Morelia Film Festival (October 2008), the San Luis Cine International Festival (November 2008) and at the European Film Market of the Berlinale (February 2009).

While staying in El Salvador, Poveda was shot four times in the face on September 2, 2009. He was just in Tonacatepeque, about 16 kilometers north of the capital San Salvador , where he was taking pictures. “La vida loca” had not yet been shown in the country.

Filmography

  • Journey to the Far Right , 1999
  • Strip de velours , 2005
  • La vida loca , 2008

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cf. Eric Lemus: Asesinan a documentalista que retrató pandillas. In: BBC Mundo, September 3, 2009. (Spanish)
  2. ^ Cf. Nick Fraser: Christian Poveda. Documentary film-maker and photojournalist unfazed by danger or difficulty. (Obituary.) In: The Guardian , September 7, 2009, p. 34. (English)
  3. ↑ See. Asesinan al cineasta Hispano-francés Christian Poveda en El Salvador. In: europapress.es, September 3, 2009. (Spanish)
  4. ↑ See Sebastian Schoepp: The Scourge of Central America. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , September 4, 2009, p. 8.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Poveda, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hispanic-French photojournalist and documentary filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH January 12, 1955
PLACE OF BIRTH Algiers
DATE OF DEATH September 2, 2009
Place of death Tonacatepeque , El Salvador