POV

Next on "P.O.V."... The U.S.-Mexican border is a dangerous place for journalists. Reporting on drug cartels and corrupt politicians can be deadly. Is journalism worth dying for? Stay tuned following this program to hear from the filmmaker and to find out how you can share your point of view.

Voice on radio

Bell rings

Honk-honk

Growl

NAVARRO

My father became a very good politician because, well, he's a very good guy.

Speaking Spanish

MAROSI

Some brothers from Sinaloa came to Tijuana and what they did was they established a huge conduit for cocaine into the United States. They were dealing with massive quantities of cocaine. They became one of Mexico's biggest, most powerful, organized crime groups. Previous to them, it was the government who decided who ran the Plaza, but once these Arellanos became entrenched, they were calling the shots, not the government, and they set a new standard for brutality and dealing with rivals.

Music plays

HOMBRE

iMxicanas y mxicanos! iViva! iViva! I started this film because I wanted to gain a better understanding of what was happening to the country that I was born in. And... here in the U.S., I was reading headlines or I was seeing these sensational news packages put together on cable. And... it was just a report of the body count. Of the heads in the street, the blood in the street. And past a certain point, there's just no analysis, there was no context, and the human side of the story, the human toll of what's been happening in Mexico, was entirely neglected. And so, just for very, purely selfish reasons, I just wanted to understand or get a handle on what was happening to Mexico, as much as is possible. I don't think anybody anywhere has the kind of whole picture, is holding the magic globe and sees everything. It's a deeply complex problem and it's rooted in a number of different things. But I do think that I wanted to talk to people who were close to it. And that research led me to the reporters of Zeta and to Sergio Haro and his editor, Adela Navarro. And through them, I began to get glimpses of what was happening. But also I found authorities that I trusted, people whose perspectives I trusted. And that trust really developed over time, because I saw the kind of integrity in their process. We're at a point in our country where we're debating the future of print media, investigative journalism. Media's changing very rapidly. And personally it was a very kind of profound experience to go to a place where people are exercising old-school investigative journalism for print. It's almost nostalgic, unfortunately. But it was a very rich experience to see people working in a way that I think has been largely abandoned here.