PLACEADA: THE INTIMATE STORY OF AN EX-ASSASSIN
Placeada: Historia íntima de una ex-sicaria
Saturday, Sept 14 at 6:15 PM
The Cinematheque
Director Alejandra Sánchez in attendance!
Director: Alejandra Sanchéz Orozco
Mexico | 2022 | Spanish with English subtitles | 65 min | Documentary
Sliding Scale Tickets:
$13 / $15 / $18 / $21
Plus $3 VLAFF Membership required
Placeada reveals the riveting and disturbing story of Gabriela López, a woman who entered the ranks of organized crime in Juarez, Mexico at the age of 13, and at 16 dedicated herself to planning and executing murders. After 20 years in prison, she is now trying to find a new meaning to her existence. She doesn’t want to go back to prison or return to her previous life…or end up dead by saying too much. This is an intimate testimony that offers a platform for discussion around what are the possible origins and causes of a violence that has kept the entire country on edge.
Placeada es la historia de una mujer alrededor de los 40 años, ex-sicaria que estuvo al servicio de una célula del narcotráfico. Tras 20 años en prisión sale libre intentando buscar una nueva manera de darle sentido a su existencia. No quiere volver a la cárcel ni quiere morir, ella intenta acomodar un pasado del que sigue siendo presa. Este es un testimonio íntimo donde se debate acerca de cuáles son los posibles orígenes y causas de una violencia que tiene en vilo a todo un país.
“La naturalidad con la que está filmada, el talento creativo y técnico con el que está narrada, además de la valentía de contar esta historia hacen de este largometraje una pieza imprescindible en el cine mexicano.”
–Kevin de León, Tomatazos
Official Selection, Morelia Film Festival, 2022
Director’s Statement
I am a northerner, I was born in Chihuahua. He played in the streets in complete freedom and without any fear. One day that changed. Chihuahua became the sinister place where women of all ages are murdered, to later become one of the places where violence would intensify the most in the country: shootings and settling scores have become an everyday occurrence, they occur regardless of the time of the day or the place, and just like the femicide (a phenomenon that I addressed in my first film, feature film/documentary, Bajo Juárez- the city devouring its daughters 2006) that other violence begins if it has not already reached the rest of Mexico. More than a decade has passed since I was in Cd. Juárez, I distanced myself from the subject of femicides, they will never be erased from my mind.
I dedicated myself to other topics in the next two films, I never imagined that those sheets with large letters and the legend “Wanted” would one day invade most of the states of the Mexican Republic.
I peeked into the intimacy of a Juarez woman who entered the ranks of organized crime from the age of 13, and at 16 she dedicated herself to planning and executing murders, Gabriela López. At twenty she falls prey and when she left for good behaviour I interviewed her in CDMX hotels for more than three years and that is how the production of this film began.
When talking about violence in Mexico, the first cause that is pointed out is drug trafficking. However, in almost all countries there is drug trafficking and in most of them they do not suffer the scourge of violence that Mexico suffers. So perhaps the origins are even deeper and institutions such as the family itself participate and act by omission and/or commission. Added to this violent loop is the state apparatus, economic and/or political interests. In the testimony of Gabriela López, the complex participation of the different actors in our history is revealed. This film has allowed me to open the debate on the causes and origins of violence from a deeper and less moralizing perspective, from the voice of a direct participant who, far from apologizing for her misdeeds, reflects painfully on her life, on her childhood, about his adolescence, about his participation in criminal organizations, about his time in prison and about the future of his children.
Gabriela López, the protagonist of this story, embodies everything that no one wants to be: executor of heinous crimes, victim of a violent father, adolescent without restraint, ex-prisoner with an uncertain future and at the same time a loyal friend of her friends, a mother in love of their children. When I met her, I thought that understanding a character with such complex characteristics should be an exercise that would undoubtedly make me approach a psychological apparatus that is replicated in many young people with similar life experiences.
ALEJANDRA SANCHÉZ OROZCO
Alejandra is an important documentary filmmaker in Mexico and her films have been part of festivals such as IDFA; Sundance, PÖFF, has more than 32 awards and recognitions in national and international festivals. Her works revolve around the complex problems of her country such as femicides, clerical pederasty, the feminist movement, sexual diversity (Bajo Juárez, Agnus dei-cordero de Dios) Sánchez is part of the National System of Art Creators, a recognition that encourages and supports excellence in the various disciplines of art in Mexico.
This film qualifies for the People’s Choice Award, presented by
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