January 14, 2015
1st Annual Film Festival in San Cristóbal del las Casas Reaches out to Local Indigenous
By D. Johnson
Some people say that film festivals are a dime-a-dozen these days, unless there is something special about them. Such is the case with FICSC, Festival de Cine de San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, January 16-24th, 2015. Not only are the organizers presenting a well thought out official selection of films, they are also reaching out to members of the local community who most likely would be excluded from this event: the indigenous people.
Their exclusion is not based on discrimination but on a reality of language and culture. Not many films are translated into indigenous languages anywhere in the world. And although many indigenous peoples across the globe speak a second more widely-used language (English, Spanish etc.), they only speak it when they have to. It is not the language most of them use to understand the world. Therefore, the majority of films they see will most likely have less of an impact, which provides less of an incentive to go see them.
To counteract this, the organizers of the FICSC will have an open air cinema in San Cristóbal’s central plaza with numerous selections all translated into the most common local indigenous language: Tzotzil. Their hope is that presenting the films in this manner will attract the indigenous community and foster reflection and dialog.
Seven selections in total will be shown:
- César Chávez de Diego Luna (USA – Mexico, 2014)
- La jaula de oro de Diego Quemada-Diez (Mexico – Guatemala – España, 2013)
- Music is my mother language (La música, mi lengua materna) de Todd Clouser, Billy Martin (Mexico – EUA, 2014)
- Guten Tag, Ramón de Jorge Ramírez Suárez (Mexico – Germany, 2014)
- O Menino E O Mundo (El niño y el mundo) de Alê Abreu (Brazil, 2013)*Animación
- Belyy Yagel (Musgo blanco) de Vladimir Tumaev (Russia, 2013)
- Gone Wild (Salvajes) de Dan Curean (Romania, 2013)
Festival Internacional de Cine, San Cristóbal de las Casas
January 16-24th, 2015
Click here for detailed information.
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