Documentary "Presumed Guilty" Censored in Mexico

March 7th

Cinépolis and Cinemex decided to stop the exhibition of  Presunto culpable after The  Secretary of Government (Segob) notified orders to suspend the screening of the documentary.

¨Presumed Guilty¨ made by two Berkeley Students and directed by Roberto Hernández,and Geoffrey Smith  has participated in different film festivals one of them being The San Francisco Film Festival

The documentary which exposes corruption and flaws in Mexico's justice system was still playing in Mexican theaters this Saturday despite a judge's order to suspend the screenings last week.

"For the moment, we haven't received a legal or administrative order to stop us showing 'Presumed Guilty,'" and Cinepolis will keep the movie on screen.

"Presumed Guilty" since its Mexican release on February 18, is now the most successful Mexican documentary of all time.

The story begins when two young Mexican attorneys attempt to exonerate a wrongly convicted man and decided to expose the contradictions of a judicial system that presumes suspects guilty until proven innocent.

In the documentary José Antonio Zúñiga asks the prosecutor to explain in everyday language what are her grounds for accusing him and say he´s guilty, she laughs and says “Because it is my job.”

This kind of attitudes and worst were also experienced by Layda Negrete a confident Lawyer who received her Master´s degree from Berkeley when she stood in front of Mexican judges and attorneys. There was not much she could do so she has done extensive research:

80% of defendants are tried and convicted without ever seeing a judge; 70% of all defendants do not have access to a lawyer and the ones that do have to face all kinds of flaws and obstacles.

Instead of giving up, Layda and Roberto Hernandez, both doctoral candidates at the Goldman School, began to film documentaries.

Layda has expressed to the media that  it is easier to talk about a problem with stories because it adds a human demension.