Documentary of 43 missing Mexican students debuts in Arizona theaters
Nov 13, 2015, 7:00 AM | Updated: 7:39 am
In this March 26, 2015 file photo, drawings of some of 43 missing rural college students are surrounded by flower petals, forming the shape of a heart, during a protest marking the six-month anniversary of their disappearance, in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
(AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
PHOENIX — A documentary exploring last year’s disappearance of 43 college students in Mexico will debut in two Arizona movie theaters on Friday.
“43” will explore the circumstances surrounding the September 2014 disappearance of 43 male students from Ayotzinapa Rural Teachers’ College in Mexico.
Starting on Friday, the documentary will play for a week at two Harkins Theatres locations: Valley Art in Tempe and Spectrum 18 in Tucson.
Charlie Minn, the director of the documentary, said film will explore the effects that the mass abduction had on both U.S. and Mexican governments.
“This film effects both countries,” he said. “The issues in the U.S. and Mexico (are) causing a lot of the murders in Mexico.”
Mexican officials said the men were traveling to Iguala to hold a protest when they were stopped by police, leading to an ensuing confrontation. An official investigation concluded the students were arrested, handed over to a local mobster organization and presumably killed.
Officials believe the abduction was staged by both the Iguala Mayor José Luis Abarca Velázquez and his wife, who were arrested a month after the mass kidnapping.
Two students were confirmed dead in November 2014 after several plastic bags containing human remains were found by a river in Mexico. So far, 80 suspects have been arrested in connection to the case, 44 of which were police officers.
