{"id":2250,"date":"2019-02-04T12:29:29","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T12:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/?p=2250"},"modified":"2019-03-25T15:21:25","modified_gmt":"2019-03-25T15:21:25","slug":"dossier-on-indigenous-filmmaking-from-abya-yala-part-i-tzotzil-mapuche-zapotec-filmic-practice-otherwise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/2019\/02\/04\/dossier-on-indigenous-filmmaking-from-abya-yala-part-i-tzotzil-mapuche-zapotec-filmic-practice-otherwise\/","title":{"rendered":"Dossier on Indigenous filmmaking from Abya Yala Part I: Tzotzil, Mapuche, Zapotec. Filmic Practice Otherwise."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In response to the recent interest in Indigenous languages on screen prompted by <\/em>Roma<em> (Cuar\u00f3n, 2018) and <\/em>P\u00e1jaros de verano <em>(Gallego and Guerra, 2018), today, Medi\u00e1tico is delighted to present the first of a series of posts that will be published over the course of 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.iyil2019.org\/\">UN International Year of Indigenous Languages\u00a0<\/a>addressing Indigenous filmmaking and language&#8217; by<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scrippscollege.edu\/academics\/faculty\/profile\/Claudia-Arteaga\"> Claudia Arteaga<\/a>* and<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/profile\/charlotte-gleghorn\"> Charlotte Gleghorn<\/a>**<\/em> <em>on Indigenous filmmaking from Abya Yala (Latin America).\u00a0 This post begins with a short video, followed by an introductory text and then a description of two indigenous films and a film making programme;<\/em> Bankilal <em>(Maria Sojob 2014), <\/em>Admongen, vida mapuche en Wallmapu<em> (Advikum, 2017) and<\/em> Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante.<\/p>\n<p><em>En respuesta al reciente inter\u00e9s en las lenguas ind\u00edgenas y el cine impulsado por <\/em><span style=\"float: none;background-color: #ffffff;color: #444444;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 13.53px;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: 400;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;text-decoration: none;text-indent: 0px\">Roma <\/span><em>(Cuar\u00f3n, 2018) y <\/em><span style=\"float: none;background-color: #ffffff;color: #444444;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 13.53px;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: 400;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;text-decoration: none;text-indent: 0px\">P\u00e1jaros de verano<\/span><em> (Gallego y Guerra, 2018), hoy Medi\u00e1tico se complace en compartir la primera entrada de una serie de art\u00edculos y entrevistas realizadas por <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scrippscollege.edu\/academics\/faculty\/profile\/Claudia-Arteaga\">Claudia Arteaga<\/a>* y <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ed.ac.uk\/profile\/charlotte-gleghorn\">Charlotte Gleghorn<\/a>**, la cual se publicar\u00e1 a lo largo de 2019, <a href=\"https:\/\/es.iyil2019.org\/\">A\u00f1o Internacional de las Lenguas Ind\u00edgenas<\/a>. La serie, enfocada en el cine ind\u00edgena de Abya Yala y su relaci\u00f3n con el lenguaje, tanto est\u00e9tico como verbal, comienza con un video, acompa\u00f1ado de un breve texto que aborda las diferentes epistemolog\u00edas vehiculadas en <\/em><span style=\"float: none;background-color: #ffffff;color: #444444;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 13.53px;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: 400;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;text-decoration: none;text-indent: 0px\">Bankilal <\/span><em>(Mar\u00eda Sojob 2014)\u00a0<\/em>Admongen, vida mapuche en Wallmapu <em>(Adkimvn, 2017) y un programa de formacion el Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante<\/em>. <span style=\"float: none;background-color: #ffffff;color: #444444;font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;font-size: 13.53px;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: 400;letter-spacing: normal;text-align: left;text-decoration: none;text-indent: 0px\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lea la versi\u00f3n en espa\u00f1ol <a href=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/2019\/03\/25\/serie-tematica-cine-indigena-de-abya-yala-primera-parte-tsotsil-mapuche-zapotec-practicas-alternativas-de-hacer-cine\/\">aqui<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Featured Image:\u00a0 Photo from the FestiLab training session in Chisec during FICMayab&#8217;. Courtesy of Red Tz&#8217;ikin<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Indigenous films - video for Mediatico\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/315020452?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"470\" height=\"264\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Tzotzil, Mapuche, Zapotec. Filmic Practice Otherwise.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>by Claudia Arteaga and Charlotte Gleghorn<\/p>\n<p>In 2018, two major feature films by Latin American filmmakers were released which have put the spotlight on cinema\u2019s engagement with Indigenous languages. Alfonso Cuar\u00f3n\u2019s <em>Roma<\/em>, as <em>Medi\u00e1tico<\/em>\u2019s December <a href=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/2018\/12\/24\/introduction-to-the-special-dossier-on-roma-alfonso-cuaron\/\">dossier<\/a> reveals, has sparked heated debates about class conflict, voice, and Indigenous language in film, centred on the compelling performance of Yalitza Aparicio and her Mixtec dialogues with a fellow domestic worker.<a href=\"#_ftn1\" name=\"_ftnref1\">[1]<\/a> Another film previously under consideration for Best Foreign Language Film in the 2019 Academy Awards, the long-awaited <em>P\u00e1jaros de verano<\/em>, directed by Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra, foregrounds not only the Wayuunaiki language but also modes of storytelling and Indigenous law, offering an original angle on the so-called <em>Bonanza marimbera<\/em> in Colombia. Way\u00fau crew and community members were actively involved in shaping the film\u2019s narrative structure and production process, though it should be noted that of the lead cast, who all speak Wayuunaiki in the film, only one character, the <em>palabrero<\/em>, is Way\u00fau.<\/p>\n<p>Both of these films are valuable contributions to discussions relating to Indigenous representation and the recent rise in productions from Latin America engaging with indigeneity. In fact, our conversations over the past months with friends, family, and colleagues have been characterised by the insistence of these two films. At this juncture, though, it seems important to call attention to the fact that these discussions are not new, nor are they the exclusive purview of celebrated, transnational Latin American filmmakers. In Abya Yala, Indigenous filmmakers have been theorising \u2013 through practice and criticism \u2013 the ways in which cinema nurtures Native prisms of knowledge-production for decades. By articulating their filmic practice in relation to specific epistemologies, they are resisting the way Indigenous narratives have been mishandled and distorted by others.<\/p>\n<p>Drawing on our recent research at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ficmayab.org\/\">FICMayab\u2019<\/a> in Guatemala \u2013 produced locally by <a href=\"http:\/\/realizadorestzikin.org\/\">Red Tz\u2019ikin<\/a> for the 13<sup>th<\/sup> International Indigenous Film and Media Festival convened by the umbrella organisation <a href=\"http:\/\/www.clacpi.org\/\">CLACPI<\/a> \u2013 the accompanying video and its selection of interview excerpts, film clips and photographs shares a sample of the terms that are moulding anew cinema\u2019s precepts and aesthetics. Below we describe the different sections of the video<\/p>\n<p><strong>Towards a <\/strong><strong><em>Chu&#8217;lel <\/em>cinema<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2263\" src=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Bankilal-still-2-1-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Bankilal-still-2-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Bankilal-still-2-1.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Still from <i>Bankilal<\/i> (Mar\u00eda Sojob, 2014). Courtesy of Mar\u00eda Sojob<\/p>\n<p>Film director, Mar\u00eda Sojob (Mar\u00eda Dolores Ar\u00edas Mart\u00ednez), conceptualizes an emerging Tzotzil approach to filmmaking. In <em><a href=\"https:\/\/vimeo.com\/225620681\">Bankilal \u2013 Eldest Brother<\/a><\/em> (2015), the resonance of incantation, of the intimate space of prayer, is palpable. The Bankilal \u2013 an authority entrusted with mediating with the spirits on behalf of his people \u2013 has a gift for words which infuses the process, pace, cut, and shot composition of the film. In Sojob\u2019s film, oratory resignifies filmic practice and forges a <em>chu\u2019lel<\/em> cinema.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2261\" src=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Mari\u0301a-filmando-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Mari\u0301a-filmando-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Mari\u0301a-filmando-1.jpg 700w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Mar\u00eda Sojob. Courtesy of Berlinale NATIVe\/Mar\u00eda Sojob<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Adkimvn<\/em><\/strong><strong>: The Image of Knowledge. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2264\" src=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3-300x188.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"188\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3-300x188.png 300w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3-768x480.png 768w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3-1024x640.png 1024w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3-110x70.png 110w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Admongen-Lonko_Screen-Shot-2-3.png 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Screenshot: <i>Admongen, vida mapuche en Wallmapu<\/i> (2017). Courtesy of Adkimvn<\/p>\n<p>Filmmaker-producer Gerardo Berrocal reflects upon the nature of the works produced by Adkimvn<em>, <\/em>the media collective of which he is part. In the documentary series <em>Admongen \u2013 Mapuche Life in Wallmapu<\/em> (2017) key community authorities \u2013 <em>L<\/em><em>onko<\/em>, <em>Machi<\/em>, <em>Ngenpin<\/em> and <em>Werken<\/em> \u2013 structure the different chapters of the series, the process of filming and editing, and reframe how Mapuche society is interpreted for a wider audience. Through immersion in the territory and its attendant principles of organisation, the <em>winka<\/em> [settler] audience is invited to understand <em>Adkimvn<\/em>, a Mapuche image of knowledge. This theorisation of Mapuche filmic practice chimes with that of Mapuche curator, Francisco Huichaqueo, who also recently shared his thoughts regarding Mapuche forms of curation in an <a href=\"http:\/\/sensesofcinema.com\/2018\/latin-american-cinema-today\/healing-through-curation-a-conversation-between-three-indigenous-image-curators-in-the-abya-yala-movement\/\">article<\/a> on curating the Indigenous image in Abya Yala.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Filmic <em>comunalidad<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-2268\" src=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/CAI-foto-1-300x173.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"173\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/CAI-foto-1-300x173.jpg 300w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/CAI-foto-1-768x442.jpg 768w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/CAI-foto-1.jpg 972w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Production shot from the Campamento Audiovisual Itinerante. Courtesy of the CAI<\/p>\n<p>Luna Mar\u00e1n, Zapotec filmmaker and community media producer, theorises the work of the Itinerant Audiovisual Camp (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.campamentoaudiovisual.org\/\">CAI<\/a>) in relation to the concept of <em>comunalidad<\/em>. Organised by the collective <a href=\"http:\/\/www.lacalenda.org\/\">La Calenda Audiovisual<\/a>, the CAI training programme pivots around pillars of Oaxacan Indigenous society: <em>tequio<\/em>, <em>cargo<\/em>, <em>asamblea, fiesta<\/em>. These values of community work, duty, assembly, and celebration permeate filmic practice and production, from inception to exhibition. Participants engage in an aesthetics of collective consensus, and the screening of CAI productions is conceived as a <em>fiesta<\/em>, a celebration of their labour and contribution.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-2266\" src=\"http:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Luna-Maran-perfil_Bruja-Azul-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Luna-Maran-perfil_Bruja-Azul-1.jpeg 280w, https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/Luna-Maran-perfil_Bruja-Azul-1-150x150.jpeg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">Luna Mar\u00e1n<\/p>\n<p>In these three examples, filmmaking is being redefined on Indigenous terms in diverse and specific ways, resulting in works that propose forms of Indigenous aesthetics that crystallise cultural, linguistic and spiritual values. The role of language is key to this endeavour, as is the significance of certain concepts, and this use of language and concepts is transforming the way in which Indigenous filmmaking is interpreted. In fact, by revealing interconnections between culture, language, context and production, as rooted in specific territories and cosmologies, the examples discussed here are challenging the very constitution of Indigenous cinema as a meaningful category to denote the vast range of audiovisual practices embraced under its banner. Finally, for critics of indigenous film there is an opportunity to valorise these epistemologies on their own terms, instead of always articulating them in opposition to Western systems.<\/p>\n<p>* <strong>Claudia A. Arteaga<\/strong> is Assistant Professor in Spanish at Scripps College in Claremont, California. She specializes in indigenous film productions, representations of indigenous peoples in Latin American films, and communitarian modes of film production in Peru and Bolivia. She is the director of a short-documentary \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=dawucdSaSYs&amp;t=2s\">Amahuaca. Construyendo territorio<\/a>\u201d (2018) about the Amahuaca people in the Peruvian rainforest. She made the film with the support of the Amahuaca people and the School of Amazonian Film (Escuela de Cine Amaz\u00f3nico). She is a member of <a href=\"http:\/\/share-amazonica.org\/\">SHARE<\/a> Amaz\u00f3nica (Sociedad Hist\u00f3rico-Antropol\u00f3gica para respaldar la educaci\u00f3n amaz\u00f3nica). Some of her publications are available <a href=\"https:\/\/scrippscollege.academia.edu\/ClaudiaAArteaga\">here<\/a>. Arteaga is currently preparing a book manuscript on the history and development of communitarian film in Peru.<\/p>\n<p>Email: carteaga@scrippscollege.edu<\/p>\n<p>** <strong>Charlotte Gleghorn<\/strong> is Lecturer in Latin American Film Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Her research engages with the political work of cinema, its relationship to processes of memory, women\u2019s cinema, and Indigenous and Afro-descendant filmmaking. From 2009 to 2014, she worked on the European Research Council project \u2018Indigeneity in the Contemporary World: Performance, Politics, Belonging\u2019, hosted at Royal Holloway, University of London, during which time she also collaborated on the international exhibition of Indigenous art and performance \u2018EcoCentrix: Indigenous Arts, Sustainable Acts\u2019, at Bargehouse, Southbank, London. She has published her work in several anthologies on Latin American cinema, in <em>Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies<\/em> and <em>Interventions<\/em>, and has co-edited an Open Access volume of essays on Indigenous performance, <em>Recasting Commodity and Spectacle in the Indigenous Americas <\/em>(2014), available <a href=\"https:\/\/ilas.sas.ac.uk\/publications\/open-access-house-publications\/recasting-commodity-and-spectacle-indigenous-americas\">here<\/a>. She is currently preparing a book manuscript as part of an AHRC Leadership fellowship on Indigenous filmmaking in Latin America.<\/p>\n<p>Email: charlotte.gleghorn@ed.ac.uk<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"#_ftnref1\" name=\"_ftn1\">[1]<\/a> The film also generated controversy regarding Netflix\u2019s own subtitling practices and language normalization in relation to the release of the film in Spain. Cuar\u00f3n termed the imposition of peninsular Spanish subtitles \u2018parroquial, ignorante y ofensiva\u2019. For more information on these discussions, see <a href=\"https:\/\/elpais.com\/cultura\/2019\/01\/08\/actualidad\/1546979782_501950.html\">https:\/\/elpais.com\/cultura\/2019\/01\/08\/actualidad\/1546979782_501950.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In response to the recent interest in Indigenous languages on screen prompted by Roma (Cuar\u00f3n, 2018) and P\u00e1jaros de verano&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":2260,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,203,245],"tags":[283,276,281,278,282,280,251,277,279],"class_list":["post-2250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","category-latin-american-indigenous","category-photography","tag-gerardo-berrocal","tag-indigenous-media","tag-luna-maran","tag-mapuche","tag-maria-sojob","tag-mixtec","tag-roma","tag-tzozil","tag-zapotec"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/files\/2019\/02\/06-Festilab.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p49QSj-Ai","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2250"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2349,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2250\/revisions\/2349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reframe.sussex.ac.uk\/mediatico\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}