‘The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández’ Premieres on VOD May 19
This Emmy®-Nominated documentary from 2008 remains one of the most relevant and widely discussed portraits of the U.S.-Mexico border. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor, Tommy Lee Jones, it chronicles the tragic 1997 killing of 18-year-old American high school student, Esequiel Hernández, by a team of U.S. Marines near the town of Redford, TX.
The incident sparked a historic standoff between the FBI and Texas Rangers—who wanted to try the Marines for murder—and the U.S. military, and brought about a temporary halt to all domestic military operations in the War on Drugs. But now, with the War on Terror and the politicization of immigration, the military has returned to the border in even greater force.
Featuring powerful interviews with the Hernández family, FBI, Border Patrol, military brass, and the Marines themselves, this urgent and cautionary tale continues to shed new light on the dangers of treating the U.S.-Mexico border as a war zone.
