Christian Poveda

In this film, photojournalist and filmmaker Christian Poveda chronicles his work and discusses filming his documentary, "La Vida Loca", an uncensored and sobering look at the gangs of El Salvador.

La Vida Loca reflects a depressing and hopeless reality, closely following the lives of several gang members. Poveda photographed members and then asked each of them to tell about their lives while he filmed them, the results are an undisturbed and candid account of some of the world's most deadly gang members.

Gangs have existed in El Salvador since the late 1950s, but it wasn't until 1992 when the United States deportation policy went into effect that the groups grew into the super-gangs that they are today, resulting in thousands of deaths.

Poveda spent 16 months shooting the film and was shot and killed in El Salvador, on September 2, 2009, by the street gangs that he filmed for his documentary.