Two rules I live by are never fight a guy with a cauliflower ear, and people with tattoos on their face should be avoided.  French-Spanish documentarian Christian Povedo chose to ignore the second rule while filming members of a Salvadoran street gang for his documentary La Vida Loca, and… let’s just say it didn’t turn out so well.

Police said Poveda was shot to death Wednesday, with four bullets in the face, as he drove home.  Police said they believed Poveda was killed by Mara 18 gangsters who were part of the new generation he had alluded to, young thugs who either did not know him or, if they did, resented his work.
Poveda said he had spent 16 months with members of Mara 18, establishing a relationship, gaining their trust and filming the documentary.
“My proposal was at least one year of filming, and I explained my plan to them, which essentially was to show the human aspect of the gangs, to show who they are, these youngsters. And that really interested them,” Poveda said. “And I was present for everything that might happen, the good things and the bad, and that established a relationship of trust. As savage as they can be, they are people of their word. They’re very well-structured organizations, and the decision of a gang is the last word,” Poveda said in April. “So from the moment that I understood that well, I never had any problems. I’ve never been afraid.”
This week, however, when he spoke to The Times, he sounded a far less hopeful note. It may be that Poveda was tripped up [or shot in the face, rather -Ed.] by the reality of today’s ever more ruthless criminal syndicates that traffic in drugs, weapons and people: Whatever relationship an outsider establishes with them, they are trustworthy only until they are not.

So basically, this movie is like Grizzly Man, only this time, the grizzlies have guns.
Read the rest of this entry »