NEW DATE: 19th February 2020: Radiographies of the human and the inhuman

Victims and perpetrators of Mexico’s drugs wars

19 February 2020, 18:30-20:45, Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE

This event presents new and startling perspectives on Mexico’s drugs war. It features a rare UK screening of Mexican director Everardo González’ film La Libertad del Diabolo (Devil’s Freedom, 2017) followed by a talk and Q&A with Dr Ernesto Schwartz-Marin, lecturer in Sociology at Exeter University. Schwartz-Marin has worked extensively with families of the disappeared and perpetrators of violence in Mexico.

Film

‘What do you get when you kill someone?’ a voice asks offscreen. ‘Power’ is the reply from a Mexican gang member who committed his first murder at the age of fourteen, still in his school uniform. A young girl remembers her mother being taken; a broken-hearted mother recognises her son’s shoes in a shallow grave; a young man recounts being rewarded with an Audi for his first execution as a teenager. The film hinges on a chilling device: first person accounts by victims and perpetrators all wearing a tightly-fitting flesh-coloured mask similar to that worn by burn victims. This provocative technique presents speakers in the same way, and in so doing draws attention to the complex nature of violence in Mexico, showing how it holds everyone in its grip. See the trailer here.

Talk

The film will be followed by a talk by, and Q&A with, Dr Ernesto Schwartz-Marin. Schwartz-Marin will talk about pain, death and the commodification of human bodies from both the perspective of the perpetrators of kidnappings and executions in Mexico City, and the families looking for their disappeared relatives around the country. In so doing, he will illuminate some critical standpoints through which to interrogate the narrative of violence in Mexico, and will talk about the way in which La Libertad del Diablo highlights some of these topics in its storytelling.

The event will be chaired by Dr Claire Moon, Associate Professor in Sociology at the LSE and leader of the Wellcome Trust funded project Human Rights, Human Remains.

 Free and open to all, with entry on a first come, first served basis. 

The event is funded by the Wellcome Trust and hosted by the Department of Sociology, LSE.