Mariana van Zeller
๐ค SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
You learn everything.
I remember an interesting, funny story about this is for season one, when we first started shooting Trafficked, I'd been reporting on black markets for years at that point.
But I had just hired a team of camera folks that hadn't.
They, in fact, had been working with Anthony Bourdain on his show.
And then that came to an end.
And I reached out and I asked if they wanted to work on my show.
I loved Bourdain's show and I loved how it looked.
And I had spent a lot of time doing these stories, but doing them with like handheld cameras and not the best quality.
And with Traffic, we wanted to combine gonzo journalism or boots on the ground journalism with
with beautiful imagery, Nagio style, right?
And so we hired these guys.
And so it was one of the first hostile environment training of this type, where we're actually going to hang out with the cartel and the criminal underworld.
And I remember the guy that was teaching us at the time, he's a British military, former military dude, really fun guy.
And he turns to us and he says, OK, so now what do we do if you get kidnapped?
Ladies, there is a chance you will be raped.
And so if this explains what to do in those situations, I look at the guys and they're like, yes, my God, God, that's not happening.
And then he looks at the guys and he says, gentlemen, it's not an if.
You are going to get raped.
So this is what you have to do.
And I see all of their faces like, what?