Bordertown

For my fifth post in this series, I wanted to bring things a little more full-circle. I began this series with a review and analysis of Señorita Extraviada, which is a documentary about the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. For this post I decided to analyze a fictional portrayal of these events from an American perspective in order to critique and analyze the difference in Mexican and American portrayals of these events. 

Bordertown is an American film directed by Gregory Nava that follows a reporter, Lauren Adrian, through her journey to document the femicides in Ciudad Juárez. The film focuses on a story of one woman, Eva Jimenez, who was attacked in the outskirts of Juárez, but survived her attack. This is an exclusive story for Lauren, and she becomes invested in the case. She puts herself in Eva’s shoes, and goes to the maquiladora where Eva works. She boards the same bus that Eva did the night of her attack, and then Lauren is attacked herself. However, there were multiple perpetrators in Eva’s case, and only one in Lauren’s. The film continues with the search for the rest of the perpetrators.

This film covers a lot more ground than I initially thought it would. It discusses the corrupt governments and businesses in both the United States and Mexico that allow for these killings to keep happening. It takes a much different approach than Señorita Extraviada did, as Bordertown focuses more on the corruption and business side of the femicides than the murders and grief that were at the forefront of Señorita Extraviada. This is an important perspective that allows for more clarity on the situation surrounding Juárez, and one that raises a very important question: Does anybody listen to women? 

The director made a very important choice on the gender of the reporter. Having a woman as the main character and in a position of power allows for a lot of sexism to be brought up in the film, and therefore discussed outside of the film. Many times throughout the film, Lauren is brushed off or seen as less important because she is a woman. She approaches the chief of police at a crime scene and gives her credentials, and his response is “A woman reporter?” This is blatant sexism, and this isn’t the only time this happens to Lauren. I think that having a woman as the main character really sells the story, as Bordertown begins to take on not only a narrative about the femicides in Juárez, but also a narrative about how women are treated in male-dominated fields. I didn’t expect this film to make such a big statement about these issues, and I’m glad it does. Not only do men not listen to Lauren, in the grand scheme of things, men in positions of power continue to not listen to the women who have survived their attacks. 

This brings up a very interesting point about the Mexican government and its corruption, as they were trying to cover up the murders and place blame on one man, stating that there was only one killer and they had him in custody, so every other case must be one of domestic violence. That was the government’s easy way out of having to put more resources into preventing femicide in their country. They arrested their suspect, and the murders continued. In order to prevent scrutiny in the public eye, they claimed every other case was domestic violence, and blatantly ignored evidence that these murders were related. There were similarities in many cases, and the chief of police brushed them off every time. 

Overall, Bordertown is an interesting insight into another side of the femicides in Ciudad Juárez, and I think it does a good job at portraying sexism in many aspects. It raises important questions and prompts discussion. Though it is an American film, I think it accurately represents the corruption of the government in both Mexico and the United States, and seems to be presented without bias.