DocScapes and the Hanson FilmTV Institute, along with co-sponsors Southwest Center, School of Anthropology, Center for Latin American Studies, Human Rights Practice Program, School of Journalism, present a free screening of El Equipo (Bernardo Ruiz, 2023).
An unlikely collaboration between a forensic scientist from Texas and a group of Latin American students changes the course of forensic science and international human rights.
In 1984, legendary U.S. forensic anthropologist Dr. Clyde Snow traveled to Argentina to help uncover the fates of the estimated 30,000 people who were forcibly disappeared during the 1970s dictatorship. Unwilling to work with established scientists who had collaborated with the apparatus of the dictatorship, Snow set about to train a new group in the use of forensic anthropology.
He eventually met a group of medical and anthropology students – some as young as 19 – and the team was soon digging up an unmarked grave on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. The group would go on not only to help establish accountability for the crimes committed under the Argentine military junta, but to initiate a decades-long relationship with investigative journalists working on parallel tracks to create a fact-based accounting of massacres and state-sponsored crimes in over 30 countries.
Joining filmmaker Bernardo Ruiz for post-screening discussion:
- Robin Reineke (Assistant Professor, UA Southwest Center and School of Anthropology)
- Mirza Monterroso (Forensic Archeologist)
- Dr. Bruce Anderson (Forensic Anthropologist for the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner)
Tues. Sept. 26, 2023, 7pm
The Loft Cinema / FREE