08 · 22 · 12

Ambulante Beyond at the 10th edition of FICM

Gael García Bernal, founding partner of Ambulante, said, "Ambulante Beyond is the purest and most fantastic expression of Ambulante that emerged in a natural way as something incredibly genuine and important. It involves playing with documentary elements in communities that did not have access to the image and projection facilities, nor the possibility to study and see other documentaries."

The first edition of the project was held in Mérida (Yucatán), Xpujil (Calakmul, Campeche), San Cristóbal de las Casas (Chiapas), and in Antigua (Guatemala). Fifty students participated in the project, 50 percent of whom were women. The students come mainly from rural or indigenous communities and approximately 30 percent speak an indigenous language (Maya, Tzotlzil, Tzeltal or Quiché). Students attending the Ambulante Beyond workshops produced 10 documentaries, about 20 minutes each, about issues they consider to be relevant to their region. Therefore, their stories were told from their own cultural perspective and aesthetic.

The films of Ambulante Beyond will be shown from August 23 to 25 at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in Mexico City, accompanied by conferences and panels with experts discussing the potential and challenges of community cinema in Mexico. The invited guests who will share their experience include Margarita Dalton (historian and feminist), Antonio Zirión (visual anthropologist and programmer for Ambulante Gira de Documentales), Carlos Hagerman (documentary filmmaker), Martha Sosa (producer), Lucila Moctezuma (director of the production aid program for Women Make Movies) and Martha Sánchez (coordinator for the Alliance of Indigenous Women of Central America and Mexico).

In addition to their premier in Mexico City, three documentaries produced by students of Ambulante Beyond will be presented at the 10th edition of FICM in November. Here is a brief synopsis of each one:

• Campo 9 (Campeche): An encounter between a Menonite and a Maya community in Hopelchén, Campeche. The documentary addresses the challenges and riches of intercultural exchange.
• El Nail (Chiapas): Tenejapa is changing by leaps and bounds, as one of the most respected wise men of the community – el Nail, who prays for continuity of the culture – looks on with sadness.
• Los guardianes del Mayab (Yucatán): Don Lucio returns from the dead to tell us about it. Recorded in Maya with Spanish subtitles, the documentary shares with us Maya spirituality and view of the cosmos through a chamin who returned to life to cure others.

For more information about Ambulante Beyond click: here.