They chase violent crime and splash photos of dead bodies on tabloid covers ... Brut filmmaker Léo Hamelin went to meet the controversial reporters of “nota roja” in Mexico City.
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00:00The work we do is risky.
00:07We've had to be there, and you say, how could this happen?
00:15There are days when there are more than five dead, and I only do an eight-hour shift.
00:24We have a bad reputation.
00:27Don't let the press come out!
00:31They criticize us, they say we're yellowists.
00:35A red note is a note that talks about a social illness that we live in this country,
00:41which is called machismo, violence, and also impunity.
00:57They are saying that there was a shooting, and we are seeing if there were people who died.
01:21Two Z2s are two injured, one Z1 is one dead.
01:25By PAF, it means by firearm.
01:33Let's go.
01:36I'm Andrea Ayedo, I'm 28 years old, and I'm a reporter for Nota Roja in Mexico City.
01:43Nota Roja is everything that involves security.
01:48Accidents, homicides, detentions, femicides.
01:57My shift is in the afternoons, and everyone else is at 10 p.m.
02:01I'm always accompanied by a photographer.
02:06We move by motorcycle.
02:13We are in coordination with emergency teams, paramedics, police.
02:18As soon as we find out something has happened to him, we call.
02:25Hello.
02:26How are you?
02:27Fine.
02:28Someone shot him, and he stayed there.
02:33The people who shot him fled in a truck.
02:38They haven't identified him, and from what I can see, there is no family or neighbors who know who he is.
02:47The only thing I know is that he is about 25 years old, and that he has a gunshot wound to his back.
02:55Go up here, because there are more police officers here.
03:01We just jumped a huge wall in order to get on the scene.
03:05The victim, as you can see, is behind me.
03:07We're right now on a rooftop so that the photographer can get a shot of the body.
03:31They always try to show off our work.
03:36Can I see?
03:37Yes.
03:41We're leaving.
03:45See you later.
03:51What do they say?
03:53That we should leave, because it's private property.
04:01I like to be part of the story we're living right now.
04:11I feel that all of us who live in this city share this notion of insecurity.
04:21I had a complicated childhood.
04:25It's something I rarely talk about, because it's still hard for me to accept it.
04:33My mother and I suffered a lot of psychological violence.
04:41I grew up in an environment where there was violence.
04:47There were fights in the streets, domestic fights.
04:58I think it's something that has affected me throughout my life.
05:02Living in my own house, with my own family, with a very close person.
05:12I think it was terrible.
05:14I was very young.
05:18When I was born, I slept day and night.
05:27It was very difficult, really.
05:31I think that was the first contact I had with the bad.
05:36And then when I started going to high school and college, I suffered other types of violence.
05:42I wanted to be a journalist because it can happen to everyone.
05:47Ingrid Escamilla!
05:53In February 2020, Ingrid Escamilla, a 25-year-old woman, was murdered by her partner.
05:59Photos of her body, mutilated by her partner, were published in papers like La Prensa, where I am right now.
06:06The next day, feminist groups gathered here.
06:09They actually set some of these trucks on fire and demanded that the way these newspapers cover femicides changes.
06:17Ingrid Escamilla!
06:22La Prensa Mexicana, what it said, is almost dying of love.
06:26Romanticizing, at all times, the gender violence that women experience.
06:31So we decided to protest outside of La Prensa.
06:34What we received in return was a series of beatings.
06:38They gassed us with tear gas, they beat us.
06:40Ingrid Escamilla!
06:44We are talking about a society that talks about torture towards women with a brutal nature.
06:52So what we wanted was for a norm to be generated, for social awareness to be generated among reporters,
06:59and for them to understand that a red note is a note that speaks of a sin, that speaks of a criminal act.
07:06Excuse me, I am a reporter.
07:08Excuse me, I am a reporter.
07:11I just want to know if...
07:31Hello, do you know if there is a dead person in the truck?
07:36The truth is that no, no, no.
07:42Obviously when you heard, you...
07:45You crouched.
07:47You ran away.
07:50I took refuge where I could.
07:52They stopped like 11 or 2 here, 2.
07:55That's where he stopped, he couldn't continue.
07:58So he was already dead.
08:00So there is a dead person here in the truck?
08:02Yes, yes, yes.
08:03The dead people here, they come from that side.
08:06There is the cream and cream of all the murders, the community, kidnapping, everything.
08:13So for me, those 4 were sent to kill.
08:16Thank you very much.
08:26Yes, yes, it was very good, it was very good.
08:29That one too.
08:30There will be people who don't like it because they don't want to remember that kind of violence anymore, right?
08:35I mean, I've had quite a few murdered friends.
08:39For the same context in which we develop or in which we grow up.
08:43And it can be direct violence or also alcoholism or drugs.
08:48If I hadn't lived that way, I wouldn't understand the red note as I understand it.
08:54I'm always very interested, for example, when the dead are near a market or a food stand,
09:02that people keep eating.
09:04That seems very impressive to me.
09:07But do you think we are used to it?
09:09No, it's not about getting used to violence or the dead.
09:13I don't think anyone gets used to that.
09:15But rather the rhythm of life.
09:16The city of Mexico is so chaotic that a dead person seems to be part of everyday life and has to continue life.
09:25I feel that we relate in a very particular way with that type of situation.
09:47A year after Ingrid's case, there's now a law that's called La Ley Ingrid, the Ingrid Law,
09:53that says that newspapers are no longer able to print photographs of femicide.
09:58They're also trying to put a halt to police and forensics sharing these photographs in the first place.
10:04I agree with the protests.
10:08I think the reasons for them are very legitimate.
10:13And I feel that beyond that, as a reporter, I feel that I have to question myself a lot.
10:22Here, when we found out that they were going to come to protest, we were ready and open to dialogue.
10:28As a result of that case, we need to be more aware of the coverage from a gender perspective.
10:36We have to take into account, Leo, that a media outlet is also a counterweight.
10:41So, for those who are against the publication of La Nota Roja,
10:45or who don't want those newspapers to circulate or put those photos,
10:48I would ask them what I was telling you a while ago.
10:51Will that publication cease to exist and will violence cease to exist?
10:54No, unfortunately not.
11:04I know that today, I know that tomorrow, I know that next week I'm going to continue doing my job
11:09and I'm going to see terrible things, but I also know that I want to continue doing it
11:14because I think it's important and I want to be able to have more time to be close to my family.
11:21Because what I see is too much dead, so I want to continue being there.
11:27I do accept or recognize that the first months were very complicated for me
11:33because in the end they are people who had a family, who died in very sad situations.
11:43And you make your life, but you say, oh, in the morning a man died and poor thing, and so on.
11:48So I think I started to suffer a little from having so many thoughts like that.
11:58The job stays in the job and you get to another thing and you have to have another mentality.
12:07What do you think, Maria?
12:10Well, it's your decision to stay there.
12:13Even if I tell you to change, you don't listen to me.
12:17No.
12:26Something I've learned from the red note is that we don't know how long we're going to be here.
12:37We don't know how we're going to die.
12:43And it also helped me a lot to appreciate life.