Journalist
Filmmaker
Writer
Photographer
World Traveler
PEDRO ULTRERAS
Journalist Filmmaker Writer Photographer World Traveler
Pedro Ultreras is a journalist, filmmaker, writer and photographer mostly interested in social and human right issues.
He has directed three films, 7 Soles (2008) La Bestia (2010) and ABC Nunca Más (2012).
Pedro has been in the news media for over 25 years and has covered news events in the USA, the Middle East, Asia, Europe, Africa and Latin America.
He has been nominated several times to the prestigious Emmy awards. His last National Emmy nomination was in September 2015.
As a world traveler, he as visited more than 60 countries.
Pedro was born in Durango, México and has resided in New York City since 2005.
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FILMS
ABC Nunca Mas (2012)
Pedro Ultreras | Director, Writer
The largest child tragedy in the history of Mexico, not only marked the lives of 49 families who lost their sons in the fire at the ABC day care, but of an entire nation.
Following the incident, parents of deceased and injured children in the fire seek to rebuild their lives while seeking justice.
This documentary lets us know the story of two families that to overcome the loss took refuge in love and try to have children again but depression and age threaten their hopes.
The search for happiness joins the fight to bring justice to those responsible for the tragedy that Mexicans mourned. The ABC fire incident is plagued by corruption, negligence and influence peddling, which also involves powerful figures in Mexican politics and society.
La Bestia (2010)
Pedro Ultreras | Director, Writer
For almost two decades, thousands of Central Americans have lost their dreams and lives trying to cross illegally the Mexican territory hanging from the cargo trains known as "The Beast".
They travel thousands of kilometers to get to the Mexico-USA border. Exhausted from the journey, hunger and climatic conditions immigrants often fall into the wheels of the trains, which mutilate and kill.
'The Beast' as this mode of transportation has become known, is the most viable alternative when crossing a country filled with immigration checkpoints, thieves,
Mexican mafia members and authorities who often rob them and kill them.
In order to film this documentary, Pedro Ultreras risked his own life by riding this cargo trains across Mexico with hundreds of Central American migrants for more than two weeks. The Beast, is a heart breaking film that shows the most profound suffering a migrant can ever live.
7 Soles (2008)
Pedro Ultreras | Director, Writer
A story yanked out of the desert's soul. Based on true facts and heartbreaking testimonies, Pedro Ultreras successfully portrays the exhausting struggle that takes place every day between hopeful immigrants and a merciless desert.
7 Soles' human and realistic account becomes the voice of people around the world who, together, demand that tragedies in the Arizona desert cease to be ignored.
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BOOKS
La Bestia, la tragedia de migrantes centroamericanos en México (2010)
Spanish Edition
Pedro Ultreras | Author
Is a book that expands and goes in depth about what was seen in the documental "The Beast," exposing in detail the difficulties, the dangers and the feelings faced by thousands of human beings who leave their home countries in Central America. They travel through one of the most risky and violent routes in the world for undocumented immigrants as they cross through Mexico on top of "la bestia" (or the beast), as the perilous freight trains they ride to try to make it to the United States is called.
Journalist, filmmaker and author, Pedro Ultreras makes use of the profuse material he produced during and after the shooting of his documentary "The Beast" and transfers it to a deeper dimension, narrating the adventures, the hazards and the deeds lived by these migrants and himself -as he also rides "the beast" along migrants- go through on the dreadful journey that these daring men and women follow in pursuit of an economic prosperity that often leads them to a tragic outcome of their plans.
La bestia, la tragedia de migrantes centroamericanos en México is a well-documented book that serves as a historical record of the most recent events about of the phenomenon of Central American migration, as well as gathers the testimonies of the migrants he meets along the "migrant's route", presenting his chilling interviews with men and women who desperately seek to reach the U.S. In this book, Ultreras presents a summary of the 2010 atrocious mass massacre of migrants in Mexico, the 2011 dramatic caravan of Central American family members seeking their missing relatives in Mexico, as well as a brief analysis of the first ever immigration law the Mexican government enacted in the wake of the mass killings of migrants.
La bestia, la tragedia de migrantes centroamericanos en México is profusely enriched with photographs taken by the author.
7 Soles (2008) Spanish edition
Pedro Ultreras | Co-Author
Literary version of the film 7 Soles. Based on the screenplay by Mexican director Pedro Ultreras and written by journalist Mirna Pineda. A story yanked out of the desert's soul. Based on true facts and heartbreaking testimonies, Pedro Ultreras successfully portrays the exhausting struggle that takes place every day between hopeful immigrants and a merciless desert.
7 Soles' human and realistic account becomes the voice of people around the world who, together, demand that tragedies in the Arizona desert cease to be ignored.
PHOTOGRAPHY
La Migración y sus miradas
Las fotografías de la exposición fueron filmadas en el verano de 2014, durante la llegada masiva de madres centroamericanas con sus hijos, muchos eran bebes de meses de nacidos y niños migrantes no acompañados. Ese año arribaron alrededor de 75 mil niños solos a Estados Unidos. El éxodo de madres Centroamericanas y menores no acompañados a la Unión Americana fue considerado como una crisis humanitaria por el presidente de ese país, Barack Obama
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EVENTS
Conferences, talks and live stream events.
