Filmmaker Charlie Minn is always looking for a victim. Fires, shootings, disappearances, you name it; if he hears of a victim without a voice, he wants to make a film about it.
“Most of my films are victim-driven,” Minn says. “I’ve done three films in Juarez about all the murders there: 10,000-plus between 2008 and 2011. I did a film about the 43 missing students in Ayotzinapa (in Guerrero, Mexico). That film actually played here in Tucson last November.”
In all, Minn says he’s made 20 films since 2009, and shown eight of them in Tucson. His newest, “49 Angels,” is about the ABC day care fire that killed 49 children in Hermosillo, Mexico, on June 5, 2009, and injured dozens of others.
Marking the anniversary of that tragedy, Minn is hosting Q&A sessions after all showings of the film at the Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., June 4 and 5.
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The film runs through June 9.
What was the hardest part about making “49 Angels”?
“Getting the government to talk to us. And even if they talked to us, who knows what type of information they would have given. Maybe it really was corruption and there was no way out, because now it’s pretty well-known that someone was hired to destroy the paperwork inside the warehouse (next door).”
It was the fire in that warehouse that spread to the day care, melting the ceiling over the room where 142 children were napping and causing the devastation. It was two hours before firefighters could quell the blaze. In May, 19 convictions in connection with the fire were announced, with sentences of 20 to 29 years.
“Here’s the thing with a tragedy, people want to blame someone for it. And I understand that because so many people are upset or angered and their lives are altered, and you wanna say ‘who’s the SOB who caused all this? Or the SOBs that caused this?’ This thing got so confusing because you dealt with a federally-funded establishment that’s privately owned, and these people were government officials’ wives (who owned the day care). So that gets dangerous.”
What have you learned about finding justice in Mexico?
“Here’s the interesting thing about Mexico, I mean the government says 95 percent of murders go unsolved. But the high-profile ones, the ones that are so political, tend to get solved because there’s so much pressure. Certain cases are investigated, but I would say, generally, cases involving poor people are not looked at. People know they can get away with it, they know poor people can’t go out and hire a big lawyer. They have no rights, they’re given no rights. I’m sure Mexico is not alone in this, it’s a global pattern where if you’re poor, you just don’t have the political power. Your voice just tends to be not as significant.”
How does filmmaking make a difference?
“I think the masses have to come together. I remember five years ago there was a movement called the Kony movement in South Africa, and so many people came together that the U.S. government actually took administrative action. So at the end, it’s up to the people, it’s up to the masses. And with social media today, there’s no excuse not to get behind something if you’re passionate about it ... .
“Most of my films represent innocent people who have been killed or murdered. And documentaries are meant to inform, educate, raise awareness for social change. But I cannot do this alone, I can only put it out there. So, it’s going to have to become a collaboration.”
How did you start making movies?
“I mean, gosh if I wasn’t making films I just don’t know what else I’d be doing. It would be tough. I mean filmmaking actually saved my life, to be honest. In broadcasting, I burned out. I remember a moment in summer 2009 I just didn’t know where my life was going. I really had reached a fork in the road, I had to go one way or the other, and the filmmaking, I don’t know if I found it or it found me. It was just kind of a collision course. And when I made ‘Nightmare in Las Cruces’ (in 2009) if someone told me ‘you’re gonna make 20 more films by 2016,’ I would’ve said you gotta be nuts. I just wouldn’t have even fathomed that even as a remote possibility.”
Currently, Minn is working on a film about the violent murders of women in Juarez, Mexico. He hopes to complete the as-yet untitled project in the fall.
Find more information about Minn and his films at charlieminn.com and about “49 Angels” at 49angels.com
