Mexican-American Director Bernardo Ruiz Nabs Third Emmy Nomination with EL EQUIPO — Cinema Tropical

Mexican-American Director Bernardo Ruiz Nabs Third Emmy Nomination with EL EQUIPO

Still of El Equipo by Bernardo Ruiz

Mexican-American director Bernardo Ruiz has nabbed his third Emmy nomination for his most recent documentary El Equipo. Ruiz’s fifth feature film was nominated in the Outstanding Crime and Justice Documentary competition at the 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards, presented by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS).

Working with a trove of archival materials spanning four decades and unfolding as part procedural, part true crime thriller, El Equipo chronicles the history-making collaboration between Dr. Clyde Snow, a legendary forensic scientist originally from Texas, and a group of Argentine university students, who were dubbed “unlikely forensic sleuths” by The New York Times.

With an unprecedented access to the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team and its archives, the documentary by director Ruiz offers a welcome twist to the traditional true crime film by focusing on systemic political and human rights abuses rather than on one-off tales of murder or lone serial killers, and deftly creates a direct link between state atrocities from the past and present.

Born in Guanajuato, Mexico and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Ruiz has directed the feature films Reportero (2013), Kingdom of Shadows (2015), Harvest Season (2019) and The Infinite Race (2020). El Equipo had its world premiere at the Santa Barbara Film Festival, had its broadcast premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens series in 2023, and was nominated for Best Latinx Film at the 14th Annual Cinema Tropical Awards.

The documentary winners of the 45th Annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards will be announced at at ceremony in New York City on Thursday, September 26, 2024.

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