<p>Filmmaker and Human rights activist, Barbara Martinez Jitner, is the inspiration for the Jennifer Lopez film <i>Bordertown</i>. Martinez Jitner posed as a worker in a factory on the Mexican border in order to uncover a dark world of grueling poverty and sexual abuse that has led to over 400 women being murdered in the border town of Juarez, Mexico. Her documentary, <i>La Frontera</i>, is the basis for <i>Bordertown</i> which focuses on this Femicide.</p><p>Diversity speaker Barbara Martinez Jitner is the only Latina to be nominated for a Golden Globe and Emmy as a Writer/Executive Producer in the Miniseries category. She received these nominations for <i>AMERICAN FAMILY: Journey of Dreams</i>, the first Latino dramatic series in the history of broadcast television. She began her career as an award-winning documentarian producing Showtime’s <i>An American Tapestry</i>. </p>
Award-winning Director, Filmmaker and Human Rights Activist
<ul><li><strong>Femicide at our U.S. Border: To Be a Woman in Juarez is a Death Sentence</strong></li><li>The bordertown of Juarez, Mexico has been nicknamed “The City of Murdered Women” because over 400 women have been found raped and murdered there. Yet not one of their killers has been brought to justice. Almost all of these women have worked in American-owned factories that have been built along the U.S./Mexico border. Filmmaker and Human Rights Activist, Barbara Martinez Jitner, gives a moving and personal look at the crippling poverty and gender discrimination that has made this “expendable workforce” - expendable human beings. Working with Amnesty International and superstar Jennifer Lopez, Martinez Jitner will outline steps that will empower listeners so they too can help stop the Femicide that is occurring less than 50 feet from our borders.</li></ul>