Mexican human rights activist Judith Galarza visits German and Austrian cities with the film “Señorita Extraviada – Missing Young Woman”

TERRE DES FEMMES on occasion of the
International Women’s Day

Film and discussion with Judith Galarza, human rights activist from Mexico- March 2004

“Señorita Extraviada”, director: Lourdes Portillo, 2001, USA/Mexico, 75 min., video, Engl. version

With her award-winning documentary film “Señorita Extraviada” filmmaker Lourdes Portillo wants to draw international attention to the brutal murders on women in Ciudad Juárez. In the industrial city at the border between Mexico and the USA more than 300 young women have been cruelly abused and killed during the last ten years. Most victims are factory workers, who were employed for starvation wages, under degrading conditions in one of the numerous Maquiladoras – large export factories for the world market. Until today no public authority, NGO, or international campaign succeeded in averting the murders, or prosecuting the responsible.

Lourdes Portillo tries to throw light on the murdered women’s fate. She talks to their families, to police officers, to agents of local authorities, and women, who have survived an attempted murder as if by a miracle. She also shows the initiatives of family members jointly protecting their women and girls. However, during the 18 months while Lourdes Portillo shot her film, before it was shown for the first time on American television in August 2002, another 50 women had been killed.

After the film screening the audience will have the possibility to talk to the Mexican human rights activist Judith Galarza. She takes part in a tour of the film to several cities in Germany and Austria (Tübingen, Stuttgart, Konstanz, Heilbronn, Bielefeld, Marburg, Cologne, Munich, Chemnitz, Berlin, Vienna), which is organised by the women‘s rights organisation TERRE DES FEMMES under the title: Women’s Rights – Remaining Stocks of the World Market.

Judith Galarza is the sister of one of the first victims in Ciudad Juárez, who was killed in 1978. She had been working in one of the Maquiladoras herself for 15 years until she was fired for her attempt to organise the workers. She founded the oldest existing local organisation of victims‘ family members. Today Judith Galarza is secretary general of FEDEFAM, a Latin-American organisation of missing, kidnapped, and murdered persons’ families. This organisation submitted the case Ciudad Juárez to the Human richts Commission of the United Nations. In addition to the murders, the film also investigates the conditions in export factories of the world market in general. In the course of globalisation these strain the lives of women workers increasingly, even leading to serious violations of human rights.

Awards:

• Barcelona Human Rights Film Festival - Gold Gandhi Award
• Sundance Film Festival - Special Jury Prize
• Human Rights Watch International Film Festival - Nestor Almendros Prize
• Thessaloniki Film Festival - FIPRESCI Award to Best Foreign Film
• Cinequest - Audience Award for Best Documentary
• Images Du Nouveau Monde - Prix Tempete Radio-Canada Award for Best Feature Film
• Festival International de Films De Femmes in Creteil - Audience Award
• Festival Internacional del Nuevo Cine Latinoamericano, Cuba: Best Documentary
• Malaga Film Festival - Grand Prize Best Documentary