BULLETIN NO. 11

Indigenous Cine and Video Festivals in Guatemala and Mexico

The Sixth American Festival of Film and Video of Indigenous Peoples took place in Quetaltenango, Guatemala, last August. The festival was organized by the Consejo Latinoamericano de Cine y Video de Pueblos Indígenas (CLACPI), which reports that the opening and closing ceremonies were spectacles of color, music and dance.

More than 60 people attending the meeting agreed to promote the training of indigenous producers, set up an Indigenous Film and Video Archive, encourage audio-visual processes to strengthen the cultural identity of indigenous peoples, and take some of the videos shown in the festival to rural areas of countries like Guatemala, Bolivia, Brazil and Mexico. There was a round table on Indigenous Peoples, Communications and Globalization. Recognition was given to several productions, including Amapola la flor maldita by Marta Rodriguez and Lucas Silva (Colombia), and Buscando Bienestar by María Santiago (Mexico).

Women present in the festival included Magaly Meneses, Chilean filmmaker who is currently Academic Director of the International School of Communications and Television in Cuba, Carol Kalafatic, of the Film and Video Center of the National Museum of the American Indian in the US, and Mary Ellen Davis, of the Festival Terres en Vue, Canada.
If you want to know more about this indigenous film and video festival, you can write to Maria Luisa Quezada or Ivan Sanjines en Bolivia: comaru@ceibo.entelnet.bo