More on Brad Will

Video of death out on Internet
Fort Worth Star-Telegram

December 11, 2006

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Filmmaker Brad Will was always attracted to fiery protests and popular rebellion. So he had high hopes when he went to southern Mexico to document violent clashes between angry leftists and a state government known for repression and abuse.

Instead, he chronicled his own death in a last chaotic film. An edited version of the film is circulating on the Internet.

Now, as lawyers and law enforcement officials try to determine who killed him and why, Will's death has become another bloody flashpoint in an increasingly restive nation.

In a land divided between rich and poor, leftists and conservatives, political dissenters and those battling to preserve the status quo, startling, grisly images have become commonplace. Passenger buses burned in Oaxaca. Five human heads rolled onto a dance floor by drug traffickers in Michoacan.

What happened Oct. 27 in Oaxaca isn't clear. The portions of Will's video posted on a Google Web site offer few clues.

Most of the edited 16-minute video shows protesters gathering in the streets, throwing projectiles at police, running and regrouping.

No obvious gunfire is audible when the fatal bullet enters Will's abdomen. There's just a thud then a high-pitched scream, the final sound the 36-year-old filmmaker recorded as he stumbled, then collapsed.

Today, a tense uncertain calm reigns in Oaxaca. Within days of the Dec. 1 inauguration of Mexico's conservative President Felipe Calderon, the leftists who'd been leading protests in Oaxaca were arrested. They've been charged with sedition, among other crimes. Efforts to bring Will's killers to justice may tell much about whether Calderon, after a divisive election, can take control of this troubled state and nation.

Six months of unrest have taken a heavy toll on Oaxaca, a place famed for its archaeological sites and beaches.

Protesters have set scores of buildings ablaze, including the state court building, which was gutted, and the popular Camino Real Hotel, a state tourism facility, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs building and the Juarez Theatre, all damaged to varying degrees.

The economy is in tatters. The tourists who once flocked to the capital's picturesque town square have all but vanished, leaving behind shuttered businesses, empty hotel rooms and nearly half a billion dollars in lost revenue.