Sunday, June 14, 2009

Travis Fox's Journey Along the Mexican Border

Washington Post videojournalist Travis Fox previously documented "Mexico at War: On the Front Lines," a series of five short videos that investigated the drug trade's spiraling violence and its numerous human implications.

Tomorrow Fox returns to the scene with a travelogue, "Journey Along the Border," visually chronicling the "militarized hot zone, where tens of thousands of Mexican soldiers are fighting a vicious drug war against well-armed, rich and powerful drug traffickers, who smuggle across these desert highways 90 percent of the cocaine so voraciously consumed in the United States. On the U.S. side, the federal government is pouring taxpayer money into the border, promising to stem the flow of cash and guns heading south, while the border patrol continues its ceaseless cat-and-mouse search for Mexican migrants sneaking north."

Fox's daily diary approach is similar to the methodology of his cross-country video trek last fall, "Hard Times," which explored how the economic downturn might influence Americans' votes in the upcoming presidential election. (See "Hard Times" and the previous installment of "Mexico at War" showcased on KobreGuide.com.)
"We're going to tell the stories of overwhelmed small town sheriffs, of drug smugglers and drug czars, of the Mexicans who struggle to survive in dusty villages and the Americans who fear that the drug war is getting way too close for comfort. We're going to talk to cops and mayors, some scientists and singers, and lots of regular folks, too. We've got a map, an ice chest, a video camera, and the laptops. "
We'll be watching. Look for the project on KobreGuide's Washington Post channel.

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