Lee Shapiro

Who was Lee Shapiro?

Lee Shapiro was an American documentary filmmaker. His one feature-length film, Nicaragua Was Our Home, was released in 1986. It was filmed in Nicaragua among the Miskito Indians who were then fighting against Nicaraguan government forces. It features interviews with Miskito Indian people and some non-Miskito clergypeople who lived among them concerning actions of the government against them, including bombing of villages, shootings, and forced removal of people from their homes. It has been reported that the evacuations occurred after "attacks on communities and Sandinista border posts by Miskitus and ex-National Guardsmen operating out of Honduras" and that Miskito groups had formed anti-government guerrillas in the 1980s. The film was shown on some PBS stations and at the 1986 Sundance Film Festival.

In 1987, Shapiro and fellow filmmaker Jim Lindelof were killed in Afghanistan during the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The armed group they were traveling with reported that they had been ambushed by military forces of the Soviet Union or the Afghan government. However, the details have been questioned, partly because of the poor reputation of the group's leader, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.