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The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández

Kieran Fitzgerald

The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández
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About

In 1997, no one in the small town (pop. 100) of Redford, Texas knew that U.S. Marine teams, fully camouflaged and armed with M16 rifles, had been secretly deployed to their section of the border. Farmers like the Hernández family, who lived by the river, went on working their fields and tending to their livestock. On the evening of May 20, 18-year-old Esequiel Hernández Jr. left the house to tend to his family's goats, taking with him, as usual, a .22 rifle to keep away wild dogs. It was the last evening of his life. 

The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández tells a frightening and cautionary tale about the dangers of using military as domestic law enforcement. When Esequiel Hernández was shot in 1997 he became the first American killed by U.S. military forces on native soil since the 1970 Kent State shootings. Shortly afterward, the administration suspended all military operations along the border. Nearly 10 years later, the military returned to the border, this time as part of the war on terror and the George W. Bush administration's effort to stem illegal immigration. 

Narrated by Tommy Lee Jones (a native of West Texas whose film The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada was inspired by the Hernández shooting), The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández features a full array of remarkably candid accounts from three of the four Marines on the fatal mission; Esequiel's family, friends and teachers; Marine Corps investigators; FBI investigators and defense attorneys. The film also makes use of military investigative video and audio recordings of radio communication between the Marine team and their commanders before Hernández was shot. 

Investigators call into question the Marines' decision to follow Hernández when, after firing two shots from more than 200 yards away in their direction, he started slowly back toward his home. They found it unlikely that Esequiel had knowingly fired at the team or that he could have been "flanking" them as they claimed. The Marines and their commanders maintained that Corporal Clemente Banuelos, the team captain, had fired in defense of his men. However, investigators believed that Esequiel was not aiming his rifle at the Marines when he was shot. Although attempts were made to indict Corporal Banuelos for murder in the state of Texas, he was never charged with a crime. As local Redford historian Enrique Madrid explains,

"The United States could not allow a legal precedent of that sort to be set in which American soldiers were subject to state laws in the conduct of their military operations." 


"Esequiel's killing had been so quickly passed over, despite the big issues involved," says director Kieran Fitzgerald, "that our nation has not had a chance to work through its important and urgent implications. My hope is that this film will be our chance."

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Credits

The Ballad of Esequiel Hernández


Directed by 

Kieran Fitzgerald


Writing Credits (in alphabetical order) 

Brendan Fitzgerald

Kieran Fitzgerald

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla

Marc Weiss


Producer

Brendan Fitzgerald

Yance Ford

Catherine Jhee


Executive Poducer

Michael Fitzgerald

Peter Gilbert

Simon Kilmurry


Associate Producer

Catherine Gowl

Richard Parks

Ruiyan Xu


Co-Producer

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla


Consulting Producer

David Nanasi


Music by 

Bobby Flores


Cinematography by 

Caz Duffy

Kieran Fitzgerald

John Hall


Film Editing by 

Brendan Fitzgerald

Kieran Fitzgerald

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla


Production Management 

Benjamin Murray

Irene Villasenor


Art Department 

Mira Stanley


Sound Department 

David Bach

Eric Offin

William Sarokin

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla


Camera Operator 

Sam Graham-Felsen

John Hall

Shane Slattery-Quintanilla


Casting Department 

Kira Boede

Kira Burns


Music Department 

Marco Beltrami

Annette Fradera

Bubba Hernandez

Santiago Jiménez


Other Crew 

Jillian Ayala

Danah Barrett

Aaron Botwick

Ellen Brooks

Andrew Cataurob

Betty Cordero-Pereira

Kendra Yee Cunningham

Bill Feeney

Penelope Glass

Martin Grant

Amber Grof

Edwin Herrera

Raquel Jimenez

Simon Kilmurry

Christina Kourteva

Jessica Lee

Dina Mann

Jaime Martinez

Amanda Nguyen

Rachel Nussbaum

Camille Park

Valentina Ramos

Dana Schmidt

Joanna Sese

Victoria Shin

Lutara Washington

Emily Westlake

Amber Yoder

Sarah Zayas


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