‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’ wins Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at Seattle International Film Festival

Death by a Thousand Cuts won the Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Seattle International Film Festival (SIFF).

Co-produced by Participant Media’s television network Pivot, the film was by directed by Juan Mejia Botero and Jake Kheel.

Death by a Thousand Cuts charts the dangers and chaos of mass deforestation, and escalating human conflict in the border region between the Dominican Republic and Haiti over charcoal trafficking.

Pivot and Univision News are partners on the series “Panoramica,” hosted by America Ferrera. To date, the series consists of eight original films co-produced or acquired by Pivot and Univision News on topics of interest to Hispanic viewers, including Death by a Thousand Cuts.

The SIFF jury made this statement about the film: “A haunting and heartbreaking work of investigative filmmaking that uses an unsolved murder-mystery as a window onto an important geopolitical turf war in which there are no easy heroes or villains.” For a complete list of SIFF winners, click here.