Producer Estefanía Bonilla Hernandez and writer/director Craig Whitney recently sat down with Desvergonzadas, a Mexico City-based feminist collective dedicated to raising awareness about the femicide epidemic in Mexico. The interview was part of the collective’s “Virtual Offering” to commemorate the lives of victims of femicide and state violence in honor of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), making it a particularly meaningful context for a conversation about The Red Note.

The Red Note and its Spanish-language counterpart, La Nota Roja, recently completed their ten-episode run. The podcast, produced in collaboration with Imperative Entertainment and hosted by journalist and activist Lydia Cacho, traces the history of the femicides in Ciudad Juarez through the testimony of investigators, activists, journalists, and the families of the victims.

Written and directed by Whitney and lead produced by Bonilla Hernandez, the series was the first podcast on the subject produced simultaneously in both English and Spanish, and had already drawn listeners across Latin America, Europe, and beyond.

Whitney and Bonilla Hernandez spoke with the Desvergonzadas collective about the podcast, the broader crisis of femicide in Mexico, and their forthcoming feature film on the same subject. They said that The Red Note movie will continue the investigative work begun in the podcast, deepening the team’s exploration of the structural forces behind the violence in Juarez and the ongoing impunity surrounding thousands of unsolved cases.