Southwest of Salem recounts the story of Elizabeth Ramirez, Cassandra Rivera, Kristie Mayhugh, and Anna Vasquez, four Latina women locked up for a crime they not only didn't commit but that never took place at all. The charges, that the four women sexually assaulted Ramirez's two young nieces, see the women engulfed in a trial that escalates into a frenzy of homophobic misinformation, and ultimately lead to their wrongful imprisonment.
Deborah Esquenazi's film doesn't stray too far from the true crime docos that have hit it big in recent years ('The Jinx' and 'Making a Murderer'), and it is powered by a similar sense of injustice. The Innocence Project, which featured in both 'Making a Murderer' and the first season of the podcast ‘Serial’, once again takes centre stage. They shine a light not only on the complete lack of evidence in the women’s trial, at least once the scientific evidence is junked, but also the inherent prejudice in the police and the justice system.
As with many of these exposés, frustration mixes indiscriminately with the emotions being displayed onscreen. As chilling as the queer angle is in Southwest of Salem, with respect to how the women were unjustly targeted then persecuted, it is heartening to see how it dissolves into a non-issue where the women’s families are concerned. It may be small consolation in the face of such a monumental miscarriage of justice but that is the kind of progress that will eventually prevent travesties like this happening again.
★★★☆
Trailer:
Southwest of Salem: The Story of the San Antonio Four screened as part of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2017.
You can check out other films from the festival here.
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