Winds of Memory

This film by Felix Zurita reveals Mayan life and culture in Guatemala today, five centuries after the "discovery" of America by racist, Christianity-led western European imperialists and colonialists. The Tzutuhil Indians of Santiago Atitlan, a lakeshore village among volcanoes, seek to regain control over their lands, communities and lives. Overrun by tourists by day, haunted by the military and death squads at night, the Indigenous Mayan reveal the disjunction of their current lives: they exorcise death and demand truth and justice by exposing mass graves; they practice a religion where ancient gods reappear as Christian saints; and they daily suffer the racism, exploitation and repression of the descendants of the western European conquerors. As Mayans defy their repressors in order to practice Mayan rites, interviews with General Benedito Lucas Garcia, former Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and the Bishop of Santa Cruz de Quiche reveal the harsh repercussions of Columbus' voyage which are still felt by Mayans today.

Defensora (2013)

First filed in Canadian courts in 2010, the landmark Hudbay Minerals lawsuits pit Hudbay Minerals's team of highly paid lawyers against 13 impoverished, evicted, discriminated Mayan Q'eqchi' people from Guatemala, victims of mining violence (murder, gang-rapes, a shooting maiming). DEFENSORA (www.defensorathefilm.com) is a must see film to learn more about who the Q'eqchi' plaintiffs are, where they are from, what mining violence they suffered, what they are fighting in defense of, and why they are demanding justice.

Gold Fever (2013)

A frightening vision of the world's insatiable hunger for gold, Gold Gold Fever (2013)Fever documents how Canadian mining giant Goldcorp Inc. (now owned by Newmont Gold) violently and harmfully operated its cyanide-leaching, mountain-top removal mine in Mayan Mam and Sipakapan territories of western Guatemala, leaving a legacy of repression and human rights violations, forced evictions, environmental and health harms.

Dynamic and beautiful quality, this film provides a powerful look at the reality of what it means when gold miners dig into the homes, communities and lands of courageous people, in faraway places, who are forced to courageously resist the harms and violations, and struggle for justice and a different “global economic development” model.

Assassination of Berta Caceres

On March 2016, the assassination of Berta Cáceres shook the world. Gustavo Castro, Mexican environmental activist witnessed the crime and survived the horror of that night but was then trapped in Honduras. The defense against the construction of a dam at the Gualcarque River is the preface to this story. We follow Miriam Miranda, leader of the Garífuna people as well as a friend and comrade of Berta. Both women share the struggle for decolonization in a country that is being sold to transnational capital and where death is delivered in so many different ways.