\n<\/p>\n
If you are going to make a documentary about danger, you have to take your camera to daring places. You have to point it at nefarious subjects, doing brazen things, and capture a level of authenticity essential for a credible film.<\/p>\n
That was the case for the crew on \u201cState of Silence,\u201d<\/a> which explores the existential threats faced by journalists in Mexico. For the documentary\u2019s tense opening segment, the team accompanied the reporter Jes\u00fas Medina on a nighttime search for illegal loggers cutting down trees in a remote forest in the state of Morelos. When Medina, with his camera in hand, encountered one, the unsuspecting transgressor was fully masked \u2014 and brandishing a thundering chainsaw.<\/p>\n As Medina began his interview with the logger, the film crew was just a few steps behind, recording the scene while both men did their risky jobs, and as the journalist \u2014 no stranger to precarious assignments \u2014 de-escalated the situation into a businesslike conversation between two professionals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cSometimes you have no other work option and you have to do this out of necessity,\u201d the logger explained. Medina got the point, and his story gently morphed into a nuanced profile of a worker toiling to support his family, despite the hazards.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd our camera just sort of captured that,\u201d the director Santiago Maza said. \u201cAnd it was very human and sympathetic, for better and for worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n That rhythm of staking out risky scenes and personalizing their main characters defines \u201cState of Silence.\u201d The film, which premieres at the Tribeca Festival<\/a> on June 10, investigates a grim topic: the rampant killings of journalists in rural parts of Mexico.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n According to the Committee to Protect Journalists<\/a>, which maintains an office in Mexico City, around 140 journalists have been slain on the job since 2000, and others remain missing, making Mexico the most dangerous country for the profession in the Western Hemisphere.<\/p>\n In more than 90 percent of the cases, no one has been held accountable for the crimes, said Jan-Albert Hootsen, the committee\u2019s representative in Mexico, who described the statistic as an \u201castronomically high rate of impunity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cState of Silence\u201d was developed by La Corriente del Golfo<\/a>, a production company founded by Diego Luna and Gael Garc\u00eda Bernal, two Mexican actors who rose to fame with the 2001 film \u201cY Tu Mam\u00e1 Tambi\u00e9n.\u201d<\/a> The company has produced narrative features and documentaries meant to shine light on social and environmental issues.<\/p>\n