I was recently hired to edit a short film for Siemens Healthineers about an interesting hospital initiative in South Africa.
Over the past few years, I have collaborated with Siemens Healthineers quite a bit through Prima-Fila Correspondents, the agency I am working with. And I got to discover great projects like this one from Netcare at the Montana Hospital in South Africa.
It has been months since I last wrote a blog post. Almost a year actually. I had planned on being way more active on this blog but the constant flow of work on my new films Desire and Scars We Carry never let up and months quickly passed by. Since I last wrote a post, I managed to complete the post-production of Scars We Carry and we just wrapped up the production of Desire, my upcoming film on Detroit techno pioneer Carl Craig. I am really happy to share that Variety ran a story on Desire this week. We are now moving on to sound editing, sound mixing and color grading. The film will be ready in a couple of months. And then another adventure will start.
This picture with Carl Craig was taken on the last day of our last shoot in Detroit. We ended up in front of the iconic Michigan Central building, that is one of the symbols of Detroit’s renaissance today. In the past two years, we spent a lot of time trying to capture all the facets of Carl’s beloved Detroit that you can hear in his music: the melancholy, the economic and racial struggles, the resilience, the solidarity, the creativity and the joy. I hope you will be to see, feel and hear all this in Desire.
I am happy to share a few pictures from the shoot. The backstage pictures were taken by the talented Mathilda Schaffter, one of my former students at the Ecole Supérieure du Journalisme (ESJ) in Paris.
This past year, I have also had the privilege to teach the remote master program in documentary filmmaking at the ESJ. My students have produced 17 documentary short films last year, an impressive achievement. I am just amazed by their creativity, resilience and perseverance. And my work with students has become a constant source of inspiration to me.
Shoot at Mirko Loko’s studio in Lausanne, Switzerland. ©Mathilda Schaffter
Three continents in three weeks. When you make a film on Detroit techno legend Carl Craig, you have to be able to follow his pace. These past few weeks have been full of contrasts and incredible scenes and encounters. Imagine. On a Saturday afternoon of early April, you are at the top of a mountain in Chamonix filming Carl Craig with the Mont Blanc as a backdrop. Three days later, you meet with him again at MOCA in Los Angeles. And in between, you witnessed and filmed a fantastic set by Laurent Garnier at the Unlimited Festival in Chamonix, where Carl Craig and Mirko Loko also performed. And you finish up your journey around half of the world at the southernmost tip of Chile for a shoot for MAN Energy about the fuel of the future. And while you are doing all that, you are trying to organize the post-production for your current film Scars We Carry, that will come out in festivals later on this year.
Interview with Mirko Loko at Le Bourg. ©Mathilda Schaffter.
This has been my life in the past 3 weeks. But let’s start with the beginning. The first leg of this odyssey took place in Lausanne, the town I grew up in and where surprisingly I had never shot a film before. We shot several scenes for Rhythms of Tomorrow, the film I am making on Carl Craig. We shot with Mirko Loko, a deejay and producer I have admired since his early days at the Swiss radio station Couleur 3. Mirko was key in the making of the film on Carl and will play an important role in the documentary as well. So we shot with him at his studio and at Le Bourg Club in Lausanne. The stunning pictures you can discover with this post were taken by Mathilda Schaffter, a student in the master program in documentary filmmaking I am teaching at the Ecole Supérieure du Journalisme in Paris. She joined us for several days on the shoot and captured its essence.
Mirko Loko and Olivier Freymond looking at flyers from the Loft Club. ©Mathilda Schaffter.
We went with Mirko to a small village outside Lausanne where the posters and flyers of the defunct Loft Club are stored. The famous techno club where Carl Craig was a resident in Lausanne shut its doors a little more than 10 years ago and is now a shoe store. Interestingly enough, the club where I spent countless nights as a teen and young adult listening to Detroit techno, disappeared almost without a trace. While shooting in the tiny village I had never been to when I used to live in Switzerland, I discovered that Switzerland has fondue vending machines in places that do not even have a grocery store.
Carl Craig in Chamonix. ©Jean-Cosme Delaloye
After Lausanne, we went to shoot at the Unlimited Festival in Chamonix. The shoot was simply incredible. First, it is one of the coolest festivals I have ever been to. I discovered wonderful artists such as Klement Bonelli and Clara. Filming Carl on top of the mountain, so far away from Detroit was undoubtedly a highlight. If you add to that an interview with the one and only Laurent Garnier as well as a shoot of his incredible set on a mountain, you can start to see see why this shoot was so special. When I studied in the UK, I used to go to the clubs Laurent was spinning at. And when I moved to the U.S., my wife bought me his book Electrochoc, which became my “Bible”. Laurent also did something really special for the film during his set at Unlimited.
Laurent Garnier spinning at Unlimited Festival in Chamonix. ©Jean-Cosme Delaloye
I left Chamonix exhausted but happy and excited for the next stop of the journey. Los Angeles, yes the City of Angels in which I hope to live one day. We went to LA because Carl Craig was inaugurating his Party/After-Party at MOCA, the famous Museum of Contemporary Art in LA. One day, I will write about everything I learned and discovered while following Carl around the world. I will just say for now that Carl is a unique artist and human being whose sound can take you on a journey deep into a universe you did not even know existed within you.
Carl Craig inside his Party/After-Party installation. ©Dan Wechsler
Carl’s music and his Party/After-Party installation at MOCA are a wonderful and intriguing sensorial experience. And what a sight it was to film Mirko Loko spinning Carl’s tracks during the after-party of the gala celebrating Detroit artist at MOCA.
Interview with Carl Craig at MOCA. ©Dan Wechsler.
We shot really cool scenes at two of LA’s iconic record stores, Rubycon Records and Stellar Remnant and we got the privilege to shoot inside Kenny Larkin’s studio. Kenny Larkin is another deejay I loved dancing to while growing up in Switzerland. We also had the chance to shoot with Silent Servant, one of my favorite deejays out of LA.
Kenny Larkin in his studio in LA. ©Jean-Cosme Delaloye
After two weeks on the road with Carl, I caught a plane to Chile. And after a 36-hour journey, I arrived in Punta Arenas at southernmost tip of Chile. The shoot there was for MAN Energy, which is part of a pilot project to produce emethanol from wind and hydrogen.
Punta Arenas. ©Agustin Barrigo
When growing up, I dreamt of crossing Chile from the north to south one day. I never got to do it, but at least I could see Punta Arenas. And experiencing the end of the world is well worth it. Everything is special in Punta Arenas, the landscape, the light, the mood. And I did something there I would never have expected doing after shooting in techno clubs for the past few months: I attended a karaoke night in a Punta Arenas bar. I will leave you with that image of men and women sitting at tables, often alone, drinking pints of beer, and suddenly coming alive when it was their turn to sing. The power of music, this is what these past 3 weeks have been about for me.
Karaoke night in Punta Arenas with Claudia Lucero. ©Jean-Cosme Delaloye
HARLEY is officially out in the United States and Canada! You can find the film on all major VOD platforms such as Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Google Play, Youtube, Microsoft Xbox, Vimeo, VUDU.
What a journey it has been. It started with the belief that we had a story with heart and a massive amount of risk-taking. This project was driven with the willingness of one man, Harley Breite, to embark on a quest to conquer his own insecurities in the search for unrequited love.
When I started working on this documentary film, I immediately thought of Don Quixote, one of my favorite books. We tend to see Don Quixote as a delusional knight tilting at windmills in his quest for Dulcinea, an imaginary woman. But for me, Don Quixote was truly alive as long as he was on a quest and he died when he gave up.
I identify with him, because I have always been on a quest. So I was lucky to join Harley Breite, a criminal defense attorney in New Jersey, on his own to prove himself and hold in his arms the woman of his dreams. We were no alone on this journey as many artists helped us make HARLEY: Lila Place, the editor; Nick Strini, the director of photography, Max Avery Lichtenstein, the composer who captured the complexities of Harley in his soundtrack; Maia Carolina, the editor of trailer; German Nocella and Daff Schneydher, who graded the film; Federico Moreira, who made it sound good, @Guille Lawlor, who created all the Rocky-inspired tiles and designed the poster with the powerful portrait of Harley after his brutal MMA fight taken by Fábio Erdos.
When we thought we had made our dreams come true with a selection to the Tribeca Film Institute Festival in 2020, Covid-19 hit. The festival was cancelled and our distribution strategy crumbled. It was nearly a knockout punch for a small production like ours, but we got back up with the help of Lowell Shapiro and Mike Dill at Black Box Management who breathed new life into the project and opened up new horizons for HARLEY with Matt Shanfield, James Guido and others at IPC. And then came Gravitas Ventures brought on board by the film's agent Andrew Herwitz.
We are here today thanks to all of them and to many more. When we wrapped up the production, Harley, the protagonist of the film, gave me an old copy of Don Quixote written by Cervantes. It is a precious gift because every time I have doubts about my own quest in documentary filmmaking, I can open it up and read the quote I chose to open HARLEY: “The greatest madness a man can be guilty of in this life, is to let himself die outright, without being slain by any person whatever, or destroyed by any other weapon than the hands of melancholy”.
Enjoy the film. I hope you will find something in Harley’s quest that speaks to you too.
As we remember the Capitol riots a year ago, meet Harley, the lawyer of Capitol rioter Scott Fairlamb. My documentary film HARLEY will be released on January 25 and is available on pre-order on iTunes:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/movie/harley/id1600773467
When I left my job at the Swiss daily newspapers Tribune de Geneve and 24 Heures 3 months ago, I wanted to finish a film I had been working on for the past 4 years.
I reached that goal yesterday. The documentary is not completely done but it is close. It tells the story of a wild and brutal murder of a young fan by a crowd at half-time of a major soccer derby in Argentina. Originally, I just wanted to write the script and give it to an editor, but I quickly figured out it would make more sense to edit the film myself because the complex story structure required me to try out building the scenes to see if the script worked.
I kept going until yesterday. I had never edited a feature film before. But after all these years working with exceptional editors on my films, I felt ready to do so. For the past 3 months, I edited every single day from dawn until dusk. I went back to Argentina this month to shoot a scene in a prison that almost got canceled a few hours before I was about to shoot it. But journalism is the art of adapting quickly to a situation or to an environment and I was able to rescue this scene. And this past Sunday, I was finally able to export the rough cut of the film. I can't describe the sense of achievement I felt at that moment.
If you have ever been in a stadium during a soccer game, I believe this film will speak to you. Among the many highlights of the documentary, you will be able to watch Mario Kempes, who won the World Cup in 1978 and who is one of the most important soccer players in Argentina alongside Maradona and Messi. The murder took place in the stadium bearing Kempes' name in Cordoba and the opportunity to interview him was a special moment for me.
This film was made possible by many people, starting with my friend German Nocella, an incredible director of photography who believed in this crazy project 4 years ago, and also Lila Place, a truly exceptional editor with whom I learned a lot about editing while she edited 2 of my films. I would like to also mention Yannick Constantin, Agustin Barrigo and Elia Lyssy, who shot some of the images you will be able to discover in the film next year.
This project started in Montevideo in May 2017 when I met Kevin Gissi, a Swiss-Argentinian soccer player who suggested I should make a film on the Argentinian Barra Bravas (hooligans). And so I did. There are some incredible characters in this film. And I am forever indebted to 2 families for trusting me and for sharing their story with me. I will write more about them and about the film soon. So stay tuned.
The Mario Kempes stadium where we shot IN THE CROWD in Cordoba, Argentina.
I often wondered what my last day working for 24Heures and Tribune de Genève would look like. I know now. The streets of New York City are hot and humid today. Outside my office, construction workers are working on yet another apartment building in downtown Brooklyn, a place that has undergone an tremendous transformation in the 19 years I have lived here.
When I first moved to the City in 2002, the original plan was to stay for 5 years and then head back to Switzerland. But New York adopted me, transformed me, gave me a family and a new career in documentary filmmaking.
This day marks the end of a 22-year career at 24 Heures and La Tribune de Genève, two daily newspapers with which I have never stopped identifying myself since they hired me on August 1, 1999. I still remember the feeling of pride I felt that day when I joined the World News section fresh out of college. Not to mention the happiness I felt when I was named U.S. Correspondent for the two newspapers in 2002.
For the past 19 years, I have been lucky to be able to feel the pulse of America’s “brutal and blind heart” described by Jean-Paul Dubois, the journalist and author whom I have never stopped emulating. When I first arrived in New York in 2002, I was actually carrying in my luggage "Until then, everything was fine in America", a collection of essays that Jean-Paul Dubois had written during his time as a U.S. Correspondent for the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur. I loved this book and read it so much that it ended up falling apart. And when I took it out this morning to take its picture and write this message, I realized that it had been signed by Dubois with this message for me: “Dear Jean-Cosme, I wish you luck, courage and a beautiful life in New York”.
I needed courage to make it in the City, but I can says that my life in New York is great because I am lucky to have a job I am passionate about. After 22 years at 24 Heures and at the Tribune de Genève, I concluded that it was time for me to turn the page and embark on another path which led me to the Tribeca Film Festival in June for the world premier of my latest film HARLEY.
I am fortunate not to leave alone. The thousands of people I met around the world and interviewed during my career, are leading me onto this new path. In the last story I wrote for 24 Heures and the Tribune de Genève, I was able to track down the bravest journalist I had ever met in Havana. After several stays in Cuban prisons, Roberto Guerra Perez had to flee to the United States, where he unfortunately could not keep working as a journalist. So he reinvented himself as a gardener.
Roberto and so many others like him made me grow both as a journalist and as a person. It is also thanks to them that I had the courage to make this move to keep creating. So to all of you who are interested in working with me, I am constantly looking for new challenges and new collaborations besides my films. So please do not hesitate to reach out.
Je me suis longtemps demandé à quoi ressemblerait mon départ de 24 Heures et de la Tribune de Genève. Aujourd'hui, je le sais. Il se déroule ce 31 août dans la moiteur new-yorkaise, cette ville que j’adore pour m’avoir adopté, donné une famille et élargi mes horizons professionnels en me permettant de me reconvertir dans le film documentaire.
Ce départ vient clore une belle histoire de 22 ans au sein des rédactions de deux quotidiens auxquels je n’ai cessé de m’identifier depuis qu’ils m’ont donné ma chance le 1er août 1999. Je me souviens encore de ma fierté le jour où j’ai été engagé par Gian Pozzy pour rejoindre la rubrique internationale de 24 Heures alors que j’étais encore à la fac. Sans oublier l’excitation en 2002 lorsque j’ai été nommé correspondant aux Etats-Unis pour la Tribune de Genève et 24 Heures par Pierre Ruetschi et Jacques Poget.
Ces deux sentiments m'ont animé jusqu'à aujourd'hui et ont été renforcés au contact de journalistes hors pair avec lesquels j'ai eu la chance de travailler, à commencer par Reto Breiter, Philippe Dumartheray, Nicolas Verdan, Jean Gaud, Jean-François Verdonnet, Jean-Marc Corset, Jean-Philippe Jutzi, Bernard Bridel et Nicolas Willemin qui m'ont accueilli dans les quotidiens à l'époque. Mais il y en a bien d'autres qui se reconnaîtront dans cette expression de gratitude.
Depuis 2002, j’ai eu la chance d’écouter battre le “coeur brutal et aveugle” de cette Amérique qu’a raconté - et raconte toujours - avec tant de talent et d’éloquence Jean-Paul Dubois, le journaliste et auteur que je n’ai cessé d’émuler. A mon arrivée à New York en 2002, j’avais d'ailleurs dans mes bagages “Jusque-là, tout allait bien en Amérique”, un recueil qu’avait écrit Jean-Paul Dubois pendant sa correspondance aux Etats-Unis pour Le Nouvel Observateur. J’ai tellement lu et adoré ce livre que m’avait offert mes parents, qu’il a fini par ses désintégrer. Les pages se sont mises à voler et tomber, mais le livre est toujours là. Et quand je l’ai pris ce matin pour le photographier et écrire ce message, j’ai réalisé qu’il m'était dédicacé par Dubois en ces termes: “Cher Jean-Cosme, je vous souhaite de la chance, du courage et une belle vie new-yorkaise”.
Il m'a fallu du courage pour dompter cette ville depuis 2002, mais ma vie new-yorkaise est belle car j’ai de la chance de pouvoir exercer le métier qui me passionne. Après 22 ans à 24 Heures et à la Tribune de Genève, j’ai conclu qu’il était temps pour moi de tourner la page et de vivre cette passion ailleurs en m’engageant sur une autre voie qui m’a notamment mené en juin sur la scène du Festival de Tribeca avec mon nouveau film HARLEY.
J’ai la chance de ne pas partir seul. Les milliers de personnes que j’ai pu rencontrer à travers le monde et d’interviewer au cours de ma carrière, m’accompagnent et me portent vers ces nouveaux horizons. Pour mon dernier article pour 24 Heures et la Tribune de Genève, j’ai retrouvé le journaliste le plus courageux que j’ai rencontré au cours de ma carrière. Son nom: Roberto Guerra Perez. Après des séjours dans les prisons cubaines, Roberto a dû se résoudre à fuir son pays pour les Etats-Unis. Dans l’incapacité de pouvoir poursuivre son activité de journaliste, il s’est réinventé en pépiniériste.
Roberto et tant d’autres comme lui ont donné aux lecteurs de 24 Heures et de la Tribune de Genève une fenêtre sur le monde qui les entoure. Et ils m’ont fait grandir tant au niveau journalistique que personnel. C’est aussi grâce à eux que j’ai pu avoir le courage de faire ce saut dans l'inconnu pour continuer à créer. A tous ceux d’entre vous qui ont lu ce message jusqu’au bout et qui sont intéressés à collaborer avec moi, sachez que je suis constamment à la recherche de nouveaux défis et de nouvelles collaborations en marge de mes films. N’hésitez donc pas à me contacter.
Je vous laisse avec quelques photos marquantes de ma carrière à 24 Heures et la Tribune de Genève. Have a good day y’all.
The world lost a beautiful and courageous soul yesterday. Wilfredo Macario died of Covid-19 on August 16, 2021, in Quetzaltenango, in Guatemala. In 2013, Wilfredo and his family welcomed me into their home and agreed to share their painful story for my film LA PRENDA (The Pawn). This film premiered at Hot Docs and screened everywhere because their story and their resilience were so powerful and I am forever indebted to them. As a documentary filmmaker, the best result you can achieve is to take good care of the story you have been gifted by courageous people like Astrid, Wilfredo and the entire Macario family. I hope to that day I did it. Let me share this short piece I put together so that hopefully, you can get a glimpse of this man's big heart. RIP Wilfredo.
Dolores and her children in Texas.
Dolores Suy Ramos vividly remembers the day she was separated from her two daughters, Candelaria, 12 years old, and Yashmi Mileydi, 3 years old, by the U.S. authorities. It happened on June 5, 2018 in Dalhart, a small rural town in Northern Texas. "They arrested and jailed me," said the 28-year-old Guatemalan mother, who used to live in the U.S as an undocumented immigrant. "When they deported me a year later, I asked to see my daughters, but they told me I wasn't allowed to."
Dolores used to live in this trailer in Dalhart, Texas. Jean-Cosme Delaloye
This mother’s quest to be reunited with her two children looks like a lost cause. Dolores doesn't know where to search or whom to talk to. She now lives alone in a remote valley in rural Guatemala far from the country’s capital. In this remote region, Internet connection remains a luxury Dolores simply cannot afford. And since Candelaria and Yashmi Mileydi were separated from her, she has never been able to communicate with her two young daughters, who are now living with a foster family in Texas and who could be adopted out .
Dolores’ children are now considered abandoned by their mother in the U.S.. "I never abandoned them and I never signed any document to authorize their adoption", Dolores claimed raising her voice. “I need my daughters and they need the love that only their mom can give them. But I don't know where they are or how they're doing today. "
The children were temporarily housed in this villa in Lubbock, Texas.
“I need my daughters and they need the love that only their mom can give them. But I don’t know where they are or how they’re doing today. ”
Candelaria and Yashmi Mileydi are among the thousands of children separated from their migrant parents by the Trump administration since 2017. The policy was intended to deter illegal immigrants to try to cross the border into the United States. It consisted not only of separating families who were arrested at the border with Mexico. It also did not spare families of undocumented migrants like the family of Dolores who were already living in the United States.
U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive action on February 2 2021 to create a task force, whose goal is to try to reunite these families. But this endeavor will surely prove to be extremely difficult. Dolores is one of hundreds of parents deported to Central America without their children and who are now completely invisible to the Biden administration.
Dolores now lives in this remote valley near Joyabaj in Guatemala. Jean-Cosme Delaloye
Furthermore, the time that that went by since the separations threatens to create another trauma for the children placed with their own family members living in the United States or with foster families. "I'm afraid Candelaria, the older one, now thinks I gave her up," Dolores said. “When the judge sentenced me, he told me that I no longer had custody of my children, but that they would have a good life in the United States. I doubt it, because when she was with me, Candelaria was chubby. In the last picture I saw of her, I found her skinny. "
The story of Dolores was published on February 3, 2021, in the Swiss daily newspaper 24 Heures.
Dolores still has siblings in Texas who are now her only source of information about her children. “The last time I spoke to my younger sister in November, she told me that Candelaria and Yashmi had not been adopted yet, but that's all I know,” she said, sounding anxious.
“Can you help me get my children back?”
In this race against the clock to try to get her daughters back, Dolores learned to accept the silence of the American and Guatemalan authorities in the face of her requests. She even got used to the idea of permanently losing custody of her youngest daughter, who was born in the United States. "Yashmi is a U.S. citizen and I don't think I'll be able to get her back," she said sounding sad. “But Candelaria was born in Guatemala. She therefore has the right to come back here. ” After about 20 minutes, the phone conversation, which kept being interrupted by connection issues, ended with this heart-wrenching question from Dolores: "Can you help me get my children back?"
The original story was published in French on February 3, 2021, in the Swiss daily newspapers 24 Heures and Tribune de Genève.
Brian Karem in front of the White House.
Brian Karem, the “loud mouth” White House correspondent for Playboy magazine, has been chronicling America’s divorce from Donald Trump. 24 Heures spoke with him.
New York / Jean-Cosme Delaloye
For once, Brian Karem didn’t need to shout his question to Donald Trump on September 23, 2020. That day, the Playboy White House Correspondent, who is normally relegated to the back of the press room, was not ignored by the President of the United States. Quite to the contrary. He even got the privilege to ask the first question of the briefing. "Win, lose or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferal of power after the election?”, he asked.
Donald Trump didn’t hesitate. ”Well, we’re going to have to see what happens," the president replied. “You know that. I have been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are a disaster.” Brian Karem followed up. The response he received from the president that day, 6 weeks before the November 3 election, previewed Donald Trump’s current strategy to try to hold onto power after losing to Joe Biden: "Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful… There won’t be a transfer frankly, there will be a continuation”, the president told him.
“This is the first president we have ever had who doesn’t give a shit about democracy.”
Two months after this exchange, Brian Karem still can’t believe Donald Trump tripped on such a “softball question”. “Let's face it. If I ask you as a president of the United States whether he will agree to a peaceful transfer of power, that shouldn't be a difficult question”, Karem said. “With Donald Trump, you have to try to keep it very basic, but he even finds those questions tough because he has got no answers”.
In his latest Playboy column, Brian Karem writes he is “tired" of the spectacle of a president still trying to overturn the result of the November 3 election. But the reporter is convinced that the relationship between America and Donald Trump will be terminated on January 20, 2021, on the day Joe Biden becomes the 46th President of the United States. “Donald Trump lost, so he is ultimately going to pay the price and he will be gone”, Karem said. “I know that he doesn't think he will be gone but he will be gone and once he is, we are all going to be a lot better off honestly.”
The journalist has been covering the White House since Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s. He witnessed several presidencies coming to an end, but none like Donald Trump’s. "This is the first president we have ever had who doesn't give a shit about democracy”, Karem said. “He only cares about himself and that is the difference. He's a narcissist. He's a fascist. He's a danger to himself and to others. I think he is mentally ill and I will never be so happy to see somebody go as this guy."
These words from the 59 year-old journalist may come as a surprise. Brian Karem writes for a magazine that helped build the myth a billionaire playboy Donald Trump craves. The president may well have hoisted up a Bible in front of boarded up Washington church on June 1, 2020 after a crowd of peaceful protesters against police brutality had been tear-gassed to clear the way out for him. Donald Trump takes his pride from the fact that he is one of the few men who have been featured on the cover of Playboy.
The story on Brian Karem in 24 Heures.
During his first campaign for the White House in 2016, the businessman often signed his March 1990 Playboy cover with Playmate Brandi Brandt for his supporters. ”I guess we are saying “mea culpa," Karem said while describing the Trump presidency as anything but glamorous. “When my kids were about seven or eight years old, they acted a lot like Donald Trump”, he added. “They were like they wanted what they wanted when they wanted it. They acted like it was the only thing that mattered at that moment. Trump never got past that. So I feel like I've been a an angry parent in the press room for the last four years. It will be nice to deal with adults again”.
Brian Karem’s take on the Trump administration is not much better. “The people that work for Donald Trump are as delusional, if not more so than he is”, he added. “So dealing with his administration is like dealing with a bunch of children in a kindergarten class”.
The reporter’s heated exchanges with the president punctuated a year 2020 marked by the pandemic. When Donald Trump claimed in February that the coronavirus would magically disappear, he was responding to the Playboy correspondent. On August 19, Brian Karem shouted another question to Donald Trump, asking him whether he had any "regrets" about the tens of thousands of Americans who had died from Covid-19.
His question remained unanswered, but Brian Karem had played his role as a disrupter. “I would submit to you that Donald Trump loves running for office and hates governing and I thought he did as little governing in his four years as president as any man has ever done”, Karem said. “If you look at it objectively, out of the four years that Donald Trump has been in office, he spent almost an entire year on the golf course. He is dedicated to stirring up his base. He is dedicated to his rallies. He is dedicated to tweeting. He is dedicated to making fun of everyone who disagrees with him and threatening them. But he is really bad at governing”.
Brian Karem has been trying to educate Donald Trump’s supporters in his own way. “They think he cares about them, but they don't know,” he explained. “Ignorance has always been an undercurrent in American society and this idea that democracy means that my ignorant opinion equals your informed opinion. (…) Trump has played to that because he does the same thing and people see themselves in him. And so they like him. The only way to defeat him is through education. You've got to sit down in a room and listen to them and talk cogently to them”.
As Donald Trump keeps feeding his base with unfounded accusations of electoral fraud, the task is not easy. And Brian Karem's methods are praised as much as they are criticized. “ As my mentor Helen Thomas [Editor’s note: the longtime White House correspondent who died in 2013 at the age of 92] told me: “if you're looking to make friends don't become a reporter”, Karem said. “I didn't join the ranks of reporting to become everybody's best friend”.
Brian Karem also learned another important lesson from Helen Thomas. “She always told me, “Look, it doesn’t matter what the answer is”, he went on. “It doesn't matter if it is answered or not. Just ask the question, that way they can't deny that the issue has been brought before them”.
On Friday, Brian Karem took advantage of one of Donald Trump's rare public appearance since he lost the November 3 election, to shout another question to him: "Mr. President, you have lost the election! When will you admit you lost the election? " Donald Trump left the room without a word and without looking at him. But the president’s silence gave the reporter the answer he was looking for that day.
I was recently interviewed about my new film Harley by the Cinechill podcast. You can check it out here.
On Tuesday March 26, 2019, I was interviewed by Kevin Moore for his talk show Twilight Talks on CUNY TV. We discussed the kind of documentary films I do, the role of a journalist dealing with a tragedy, the current administration, etc. I hope you will be able to check it out here.
At the end of a recent screening of my film La Prenda in Caracas, Venezuela, a man came to me to thank me for the film. His eyes full of sadness struck me. He told me that day about his son Juan Pablo, who had been murdered in April of 2017. He gave me his contact information and told me he would like to share his story if I had time. I called him that night told him I would come by the next morning. But my schedule changed that day and what was supposed to be an early interview turned out to be the last thing I did that night.
I arrived really late but Jose and his wife Elvira had patiently waited for me in their half-lit house in Caracas. That night, I stepped into a house out which life had been sucked. Since their only son Juan Pablo has been killed on April 26, 2017 during a rally against the government of Nicolas Maduro, Jose and Elvira have been left behind with their boundless and uncontrollable grief. They are waging a lonely fight for justice. The day we met, the lawyer representing them and other families of young people who have allegedly been killed by the Venezuelan armed forces at rallies in 2017, had himself been killed. They were with another mother, Zulmith, whose only son had also been killed that year. The fought through tears to tell me the story of 20 year-old Juan Pablo, a young basketball star in his country. They showed me his room, his bag full of books he was carrying the day he was killed. They introduced me to the 6 stray dogs and 7 stray cats he had rescued before his death. They told me the story of a young man with a bright future, who lost his life for daring to raise his voice.
Jose and Elvira are now financing their fight for justice with the money they had saved to pay for his studies. You can read their story in Le Matin Dimanche below.
Supermarkets are empty. Parts of Caracas are in the dark. The brand new currency has no real value because of a rampant inflation. As Nicolas Maduro starts his second term as president today in Venezuela, the situation is dire in the South American country. Read my latest story from Caracas, that ran today in 24 Heures and Tribune de Genève in Switzerland.
Stray Bullet was featured on Swiss National Television in December. It was in story focusing on the Netflix release of the film in the US. Please check it out.
Should a film aim to bypass festivals and be released directly on Netflix? This is the question the major Swiss daily newspaper 24 Heures asked Jean-Cosme Delaloye, the director of STRAY BULLET. His response was unequivocally yes for his latest film. Since STRAY BULLET was released on Netflix, the feedback has been huge. It is incredible to see on Twitter the amount of people the film touched and how far it has traveled in the U.S. One of the main participants of the film has been invited to give talks to college students. People, who had relatives hurt by stray bullets, reached out to us. It has been an unbelievable experience to witness how wide the audience for this film has been. Some films might be more suited for festivals like Jean-Cosme Delaloye’s previous film - LA PRENDA - had been. But the Netflix release has been absolutely fantastic for STRAY BULLET. If you have not watched the film here, you can do so here.
I write this note from an airport lounge on the way to yet another story of injustice - or justice depending on which angle you look at it. As always when I leave to do a difficult story, I am anxious to get access to it and then to get to the bottom of it. But tonight, more than anything else, I am inspired by what happened since my latest documentary film Stray Bullet launched on Netflix on July 15: https://www.netflix.com/title/80998908
4 years ago, we set out to tell the story of a young girl - Genesis - who had been hit by a stray bullet in the streets of Paterson. When their daughter passed away, Genesis' parents lost their source of inspiration, love and joy. And then, they lost everything they had built in Paterson. While they were trying to hold on to Genesis' memories, they opened welcomed us into their life. I will always remain deeply grateful for their courage and for their trust.
Genesis' parents needed to have that faith because they knew we were trying to tell the story of the stray bullet that had killed their daughter. That meant looking at the other side and going into the streets that had been fatal to Genesis. They did not know what would come out of that. Nor did the mothers, the relatives and the friends of the two young men who were accused of killing Genesis. These people showed the same courage when they too decided to share their story with us. We are really grateful to them too.
Stray Bullet is meant to be the mirror of what is going in the streets and in the courtroom. The film aims to show how the justice system and the community as whole is trying to deal with a stray bullet that killed an innocent 12-year-old girl on July 5, 2014, in Paterson.
In Stray Bullet, there is no hero and no villain. No one is trying to change the world, because everyone is trying to cope with it first. Stray Bullet is a journalistic film more than anything else. We did not try to make art out of the tragic story of Genesis, we just wanted to keep it as raw as possible. We wanted to show all sides, while making sure no one would be able to reach the closing credits without knowing who Genesis was.
We would not have been able to do it without the help of the participants in the film. We were able to speak to guys who have had to learn from a young age how to survive in the tough streets of Paterson. Some decided to tell their story methodically. Others like Knowledgeborn decided to "spit" it.
Tomorrow, I will be in the middle of Guatemala to cover another story of separation. I will hug the woman who agreed to share it with me and I will thank her, hoping she will be reunited with her children soon. But tonight, I first want to thank the participants of Stray Bullet. And I am thinking of Genesis who would have been 16 this year.
When you start working on a documentary film, you have to be ready for a marathon during which you will have to deal with highs, lows, intense emotions, rejections, frustrations, anguish, excitement. You will have to hustle, convince, think, imagine, find solutions and take risks.
I started working on LA PRENDA - THE PAWN six years ago. At the time, I had just finished BY MY SIDE, a film I produced myself. I was screening it at the Icaro Festival in Guatemala in November 2011 when I decided to do a follow up on an audio documentary on kidnappings in Guatremala I had done for Swiss Public Radio. I met Rodolfo Diaz, a lawyer of the Sobrevivientes Foundation. He was representing the family of Kelly Diaz, a teenager who had been kidnapped for a ransom and ultimately been killed.
Kelly Diaz.
When I heard about the brutality of that case, I thought that it would have made headlines around the world if it had happened in the US or in Europe. Before she was killed, Kelly had been tortured and raped. Her pelvis had been fractured. Her body was found days later in the woods.
@ElQuetzalteco
I decided to start doing a film on Kelly's story, without thinking twice about it. The next morning, I hired a cameraman and we drove 4 hours through Guatemala to Quetzaltenango, where I met with Karin Gramajo. Karin is Kelly's cousin and she has been fighting for justice for Kelly for the past 7 years despite the threats she has had to deal with. Karin should have been a lawyer but could not afford to finish her studies. So she helps people with their legal fights against the widespread impunity in Guatemala. If Karin hadn't agreed to be in La Prenda, there would have been no film. But she did agree and we embarked on an incredible journey together.
Karin Gramajo in Quetzaltenango.
We were soon joined by Astrid Elias, a courageous young woman living in Los Angeles, who had been kidnapped and raped as a child in Guatemala. I remember the call I received one day from Azalea Vazquez, a witness in Astrid's political asylum case in Los Angeles. Azalea had heard I was looking for another case of kidnapping for my film and she decided to reach out to me. In a documentary film, there are moments like that. You feel you are stuck because the story is so sensitive that people can't share it. And suddenly a door opens. Thanks to Azalea, I was able to speak with Andrea Garcia, Astrid's lawyer, and with Astrid herself. Astrid is a shy young woman, who had been kidnapped and raped in Quetzaltenango when she was 14 years old. After a ransom was paid by her family, she was released and stayed at her grandparents' home without leaving. Once she started going out again a year later, she was threatened again. So her parents who lived in Los Angeles, decided to make her come to the United States with her younger sister. But Astrid was caught by the border patrol while she was trying to cross into the United States and she was facing deportation when I first met her. While fighting for her life, she decided to let me document her ordeal.
Astrid at the 2016 FIFDH in Geneva. ©Miguel Bueno, FIFDH
Andrea Garcia, Astrid's lawyer, at the FICG in Los Angeles. ©Juan Tallo, FICG in LA
In a world where journalists are under constant attack and ignorantly labeled as fake news by some people, Astrid gave me the opportunity to go to the bottom of her story over the next 2 years. When she was facing deportation, we were there. When she was praying for a reprieve, we were there. When she went to her final court hearing, we were there. Her family embraced us. They showed us a courage I have seldom been exposed to. They trusted with a story, their story.
Estella and Alberto, Astrid's parents, on the red carpet of the FICG in LA at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. ©Juan Tallo, FICG in LA
A film is a team. And thanks to all the people who decided to work on it, produce it, support it and finance it, we were able to get it done in 2 years. The response has been incredible. It premiered in 2015 at Hot Docs and at the prestigious Guadalajara Film festival. It screened in some of the best festivals in the world such as Thessaloniki, Mill Valley, Havana, FIFDH, San Sebastian. It screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood, at Lincoln Center in New York as part of the Women in the World Summit. Astrid got to share the stage with Meryl Streep, America Ferrara, Microsoft exec Brad Smith and many others. The film won several awards and it is still going around the world as part of the FIFDH on tour. Last month, it screened in Guatemala and sparked a debate on human rights and justice with a Guatemalan Supreme Court judge.
Despite its big success in festivals, it took time for La Prenda - The Pawn to be broadcast on TV. That changed on May 14, 2018, as the film screened on Swiss Public Television RTS in Switzerland. As a filmmaker, I feel I finally reached the end of the marathon of La Prenda. I can let this film go even if Kelly, Astrid, Micaela and their families will always remain in my heart.
Sobrevivientes lawyer Rodolfo Diaz, Jean-Cosme Delaloye (director of La Prenda), Astrid Elias and Luisa Ballin at the FIFDH in Geneva. ©Miguel Bueno, FIFDH.
As a documentary filmmaker, you never stop running. But you will always cross paths with people that inspire you and push you forward. My next goal is to finish my new film's marathon. I am getting close to it as we will announce a major US release for Stray Bullet in the next few weeks.
The family of 12-year-old Genesis Rincon celebrating her birthday a few months after her death. Scene from Stray Bullet.
Last week, I worked on a complicated story about the murder-suicide of the Griffith family in Mapleton, Utah, late last year. This exclusive story raised a lot of questions about what you should reveal as a journalist and what is best kept private. I located the biological father of the alleged murderer, Timothy Griffith, and his ex-wife. The father shared the story of his son and his quest for answers. His son Timothy is accused of shooting and killing his wife Jessica, 16-year-old Samantha, his wife's daughter, and 5 year-old Alexandre, the son he had with Jessica. Timothy is also accused of shooting the family dog before committing suicide.
The Mapleton police department concluded that Jessica planned this murder-suicide with her husband. She thought she was dying from an imaginary cancer and the family's financial situation was dire. The police report was detailed and devastating for both parents, who had fled their financial problems in Switzerland according to people I interviewed for the story. Jessica made several claims to her husband, mother and brother about her childhood, that might help us explain why she was in such distress in the days leading up to the murder-suicide. For those who can read French, here is the story that ran last Sunday in Le Matin Dimanche, a major Sunday paper in Switzerland.
