10 · 09 · 07

Foro de los Pueblos Indígenas (Indigenous People Forum) inauguration

Clara Sánchez/Translated by Vicente Castañar

[imagen]Yesterday began the Foro de los Pueblos indígenas with these films:

XINÃ BENA (Nuevos Tiempos) by Brazilian filmmaker Zezinho Yube and GUENATI’ZA (Los que vienen de visita) by Mexican filmmaker Yolanda Cruz.

Foro de los pueblos Indígenas will be held from Wednesday through Friday. This Forum was created to honor the culture and history of native nations, it celebrates the unique ways of expression of the indigenous films world wide and it also recognizes the importance of keeping alive these native cultures through the visual arts.

After Yolanda Cruz’ film was shown she said that her movie’s intention was to observe the native world: “to observe the native world face to face and not from a high position like most of the films do.”

Cruz, who won the Rockefeller Grant and who is from Oaxaca, explained that she is also trying to transmit to the Mexican communities that in the US not everything is good.

“I have nothing against migrations; as a matter of fact I was able to get a good education and therefore many possibilities. I just want to highlight the fact that nothing is perfect up North. New generations believe that the future is up North. Parents want their children to migrate North so they can send a lot of money back home and people suffer a lot to get the money.”

This Forum is running for free at Teatro José Rubén Romero, and it will exhibit various films and it will hold many conferences about producing indigenous-native films