Chiapas, Mexico, November 1, 2018
Today begins the film festival: “Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic” (Caracol of our Lives), whose first edition will be held in the Zapatista Caracol of Oventik, in the mountains of the Mexican Southeast (with alternate projections in the CIDECI of San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas), from November 1 to 9 as the Sixth Commission of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) announced last October 4.
In the festival convoked by the indigenous rebel Chiapanecos you will be able to see films in categories like: Ah, do you fall? Falling and getting up; Dreaming Reality; The storm; Yesterday, Today; Resistance and Rebellion; Sing, Weave, Dance, Play, Count that memory; Meanwhile, there above; No pardon, no oblivion; “We greet you, always”; Look in the Mirror. There were also special sections: Infantile Correspondence and Ixmucané. The original peoples made the different films that will be presented, and there will also be national and international filmmakers.
“This First Film Festival “Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic,” is FUNDAMENTALLY designed for the Zapatista original peoples, for their eyes and the eyes of the people who work in or around fiction film and documentary film,” el Subcomandante Galeano reported in a comunicado. “A Zapatista audience of at least 4,000 masked people are expected in the first days,” the Chiapas insurgent indicated, who will be able to see the films in the movie theaters: Emiliano Zapata 3D Children’s Cinema and the Comandanta Ramona Film Hall; in the Caracol of Oventic, Chiapas.
For the others attending the Film Festival, the organizers report that it is the “Pie Cinema Maya” (where no cars are allowed), it is outdoors and can hold more than 10,000 moviegoers. “The exhibitions there depend on whether it rains or not, and must be seen when it gets dark. That’s why that mega hall will only be used for some exhibitions from 1800 hours (6 PM) onwards,” they point out.
There will also be, thanks to the support of citizen artists, musical activities, theatre, dance, photographic exposition and storytelling, in pavilions installed around the “Pie Cinema Maya,” the former Subcomandante Marcos adds in his comunicado, and they announce the e-mail for attendees to register: festivalcine@enlacezapatista.org.mx
EZLN: “Look and listen from/to below”
“Looking is a way of asking, we, the Zapatistas, say. Or of seeking,” argued Sub Marcos in February 2013, in the comunicado THEM AND US. VI. – GAZES 1. – Looking to impose or looking to listen. “And it’s in the looking where the other appears. It’s in the gaze where fears nests, but also where respect can be born. If we don’t learn to look at each other, what is the meaning of our gaze, our questions: Who are you? What is your story? Where are your pains? When are your hopes?” the Zapatista spokesperson questioned.
In the comunicado THEM and US VI – Gazes, Part 2: Looking and listening from/towards below, the now Sup Galeano wondered: Can we still choose towards where and from where to look? And he pointedly described the sufferings of a working class increasingly exploited and despised.
In the message THEM AND US, VI – Gazes. Part 3: Some other looks, the Zapatista spokesperson stressed that the view from/towards below: “It doesn’t want to convince you yes or no; it doesn’t want to co-opt you; it doesn’t want to recruit you; it doesn’t want to direct you; it doesn’t want to judge-condemn-absolve you; it doesn’t want to use you; it doesn’t want to tell you what you can or cannot do; it doesn’t want to give you advice, recommendations, orders; it doesn’t want to reproach you because it doesn’t know, not because it does know; it does not despise you; it doesn’t want to tell you what you should or should not do; it doesn’t want to buy your old car, your face, your body, your future, your dignity, your will; it doesn’t want to sell you something…”.
“The look that we provoke with this will no longer be that of pity, pain, compassion, charity, alms. There will be joy in those who are like we are, but courage and hate in the Big Bosses. They are going to attack us with all their means,” the then Sup Marcos shared in the comunicado THEM AND US. VI. – Gazes. Parte 5: Look at the night in which we are. (From the new moon to the crescent quarter.) “Yes, I told them. They looked at each other, but said: “We want to look and see ourselves as what we are although we don’t know nor do they know what we are. We want them to look at us. We are ready and willing, we are ready for the Big Bosses,“ abounded the Insurgent about the look.
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Originally Published in Spanish by Pozol Colectivo
Thursday, November 1, 2018
Re-Published with English interpretation by the Chiapas Support Committee
Chiapas Support Committee 