Reporting Without Borders
Oscar Leon is a US-based journalist and documentary filmmaker specializing in investigative and field reporting about social movements across the Americas, with a focus on Latin America, mining conflicts, and the US South border.
His work examines political dynamics, social movements, corruption, and environmental challenges, particularly in the US Latino community and in regions shaped by corporate and state influence.
27 Years Reporting on Social Movements
Oscar Leon is a US-based journalist and documentary filmmaker specializing in investigative and field reporting about social movements across the Americas, with a focus on Latin America, mining conflicts, and the US South border.
His work examines political dynamics, social movements, corruption, and environmental challenges, particularly in the US Latino community and in regions shaped by corporate and state influence.
Experience and Skills
Oscar Leon is an experienced international press correspondent and documentary filmmaker based in Arizona.
His work has been featured on major television networks across the Americas, including Telesur, ECTV, Ecuavisa, Radio Canada, Canal Uno, Fox Sports Latin America, ABC 15 Arizona, and El Garaje TV. More recently, his reporting has been published online through The Real News and The Grayzone.
Oscar has reported from as many as 11 countries and more than 15 U.S. cities; his coverage includes social movements, politics, economics, environmental issues, culture, and sports.
Recipient of Serena Shim Award
Recipient of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.
“Serena Shim (1985-2014) was an American journalist working for Iranian broadcaster Press TV. Reporting from the Turkish-Syrian border, she reported about fighters from ISIS crossing from Turkey into Syria, disguised in trucks carrying the symbols of NGOs and the World Food Programme.
Serena told her employers that she was threatened by Turkish intelligence and accused of espionage. Two days later, she was suddenly killed in a suspicious car accident in October 2014, the circumstances of which have remained murky since that time.
When she was threatened by the Turkish intelligence, she continued to report despite her well-founded fears, and paid the ultimate price for her uncompromised integrity in journalism.
The Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism honors non-mainstream journalists who continue to tell challenging truths in difficult times.
The funds provided by this Award enable these courageous journalists to continue their work in an environment that penalizes them for their clarity of vision and willingness to expose the powerful.”
Oscar invested the funds he received to produce the series Monster at the Door (for The Grayzone), which documents Ecuadorian Indigenous communities under pressure from large-scale mining operations.
“I learned about the prize, after I landed in Ecuador, determined to film the documentary at all costs, and with next to no funding. It was quite a moment.”
The series examines how these corporations, often in coordination with state forces, deploy asymmetrical strategies that threaten to displace communities and open the last remaining stretches of native rainforest to mega-mining projects. (See links below)
for more info about the award: https://serenashimaward.org/
“Monster at The Door” Series
Podcast