The Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University
Title: MAYAS U SU’UT KA’ANSAH Description: Filmed in the states of Quintana Roo and Yucatán, “U Su’us Ka’ansah (The Cycle of Teaching) depicts the living ancestral science within Mayan communities. We are given the opportunity to partake in their cultural … Read more
Title: EN EL CAMINO DE NUESTRAS ANTEPASADOS Description: This film uses puppets to deliver lessons about Yucatec Maya language, culture, and history. It deals with issues of contemporary and ancient Maya heritage. The main characters travel to different sites including … Read more
Title: PUEBLOS INDIGENAS, LOS Description: Los Pueblos Indigenas Hoy is a ten part series that is an educational resource about the indigenous peoples of Mexico. Sponsored by the Mexican government, the series aired on Mexican national television in 2010 in … Read more
Part 2 of a series of shorts from the 2004 Geografias Suaves regional film festival which feature Maya speaking peoples from Yucatan and Chiapas. The shorts include a video postcard documenting the lives and everyday experiences of children and their … Read more
Description: A documentary about the efforts to bring alpacas, indigenous animals of the Andes who were sacred in Inca culture, to a community in Northern Peru. Populations of alpacas were devastated during the Spanish conquest. The film depicts this cooperative … Read more
Description: “Mirrors of the Heart” This program explores shifting ethnic and racial definitions in the region, looking at Bolivia, a nation with a rich Indian tradition, and Hispaniola, an island divided between two nations –Haiti and the Dominican Republic– with … Read more
Description: An informative and sensitive documentary that tells the story of Mayan women activists and their courageous fight for indigenous rights in Guatemala. Featuring several outstanding women that are playing an important role in this struggle, including 1992 Nobel Peace … Read more
Description: This documentary introduces us to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico, home to an indigenous Zapotec society where gender and sexual preference are a fluid concept. The women dominate the home and businesses, while the men do much of … Read more
Description: The Buenavista Base was produced in 1994 at Duke University Museum of Art for the exhibit Painting the Maya Universe. Dorie Reents Budent, curator of the exhibit and curator at DUMA explains in this video the importance of this … Read more
Description: (five part series) A co-production of Spanish television and the Smithsonian Institute, this Quincentenary series, narrated by the well known Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, is an excellent historical analysis and creatively filmed story of the encounter of two worlds … Read more
Description: Freely adopted from the book Naufragios by Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca (written in 1542). The film portrays the saga of the adventures of a group of Spanish soldiers in Mexico. Their leader, Cabeza de Vaca, is considered to … Read more
Description: This film, based on ritual and legends from the Popul Vuh, as well as Tzeltal and Mayan stories, and shot in the Chiapas region of Mexico, focuses on a small Tzeltal village during a terrible draught. Desperate for relief, … Read more
Description: This is a documentary by the Educational Video Network about ancient Maya society. This is intended for younger audiences. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 23 minutes
Description: An intimate portrait of the historic electoral campaign that made Evo Morales the first indigenous president of Bolivia. Through direct personal access to Morales, the filmmakers document his interactions with the union of Coca growers who formed his initial … Read more
Description: This documentary features interviews with indigenous activists from North, South, and Central America who gathered at the First Contintental Conference of Indigenous Peoples in July of 1990. Native people speak about the impact on their cultures of the Columbus … Read more
Description: The conquest of the New World in less than 50 years is one of history’s most profound events–and remains one of its greatest adventures. British historian Michael Wood captures the bravery, endurance, greed, cruelty, and suffering involved in these … Read more
Description: The conquest of the New World in less than 50 years is one of history’s most profound events–and remains one of its greates adventures. British historian Michael Wood captures the bravery, endurance, greed, cruelty, and suffering involved in these … Read more
Description: Part of a video series of the Taller Miradas Antroplogicas, which seeks to recognize the indigenous peoples of Mexico and their participation in Mexican society. This episode documents the presence of indigenous youth in university life. Copies: 1 (VHS) … Read more
Description: This documentary tells the story of how, after centuries of inaccessibility, the Mayan hieroglyphics were finally decoded by archaeologists. Through many discoveries by people of all ages, including Michael Coe and David Stuart, the Mayan Civilization is brought to … Read more
Description: Documentary tribute to the late Linda Schele, among the leading scholars of Maya civilization, who in January 1998 gave a long, filmed interview in which she talks freely and frankly in her own inimitable style about her life, work, … Read more
Description: Every year on July 16th the town of Paucartambo celebrates the festival of the Virgen del Carmen, Mamacha Carmen. According to tradition, the beauty of this festival arises from the competition between it and the Virgen del Rosario, the … Read more
Description: Patricia Amlin, the extraordinary animator who created Popol Vuh has taken authentic images from ancient Maya ceramics and turned them into a riveting retelling of the Maya creation myth. The story tells how Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca create heaven and … Read more
Description: A series of shorts from the 2004 Geografias Suaves regional film festival which feature Maya speaking peoples from Yucatan and Chiapas. The shorts include a video postcard documenting the lives and everyday experiences of children and their communities as … Read more
Description: Based on the research of Felipe Vázquez Palacios and his team in the state of Veracruz. This documentary depicts the daily life of those whom society considers to be old. The testimonies of these men and women teach us … Read more
Description: This work by Luis Valdez and El Teatro Campesino marked the emergence of film as a distinct cultural and aesthetic practice within the Chicano Movement. In the film, Luis Valdez gives a dramatic interpretation of Rudilfo “Corky” Gonzalez’s epic … Read more
Description: Deep in the rainforest of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula are the lost Mayan Cities of Chichen Itzá and Palenque. Discover their magic and learn about the Mayan culture while exploring some of the region’s most exquisite examples of pre-Hispanic American … Read more
Description: Explores the mysteries of an advanced civilization’s disappearance. The miracles of the Incas are presented in this engrossing special by award winning filmmaker Luch Jarvis. Suitable for all ages, but excellent for elementary-school students. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 60 … Read more
Description: This oringinal ethnographic video depicts how New Agers, the Mexican state, tourists, and 1920s archeologists all contend to “clear” the site of the antique Maya city of Chiché Itzá in order to produce their own idealized and unobstructed visions … Read more
Description: This feature film tells the story of the life of Jesus in Yucatec Maya language. It is a great resource for those who want to practice and master the language. Copies: 2 (DVD and VHS) Length: 120 Minutes
Description: This great exhibit shows the expressive aesthetic language and historical testimony of an admirable civilization. This is the first presentation of the maya civilization that has covered all the regions of their geographical extension, all the periods of its … Read more
Description: This film takes a look at the cultural wealth of prehispanic Mexico: the civilizations of the Toltecs, the Aztecs, the Mayas, and their legacies are explored. Intended for younger audiences. An Educational Video Network film. Copies: 2 (DVD and … Read more
Description: Based in Mexico, a poor man struggles to make ends meet while facing the adversity of socioeconomic prejudice. Finances become worse once his ten-year-old son becomes seriously ill, and the man must find the means to heal his son. … Read more
Description: Several Maya women in the Highland community of Comalapa share their insights into the art of weaving and its place and importance in their lives. Directed by Julia Kellman and Phil Miller and filmed on location in Guatemala and … Read more
Description: Produced by Samuel Franco, director of the Casa K’OJM, a private non-profit educational research center in Antigua, Guatemala dedicated to the preservation of Maya culture through music this video shows us live footage of music during daily life and … Read more
Description: Themes of greed and redemption weave through this story of a young man’s obsessive search for gold. His quest takes him deep into the jungle and into fateful encounters with other “beings” in Bolivia’s tropical region of Cochabamba. Copies: … Read more
Description: The synthetic cultural identities resulting from the forcible conversion of Mexicos indigenous people by the Spanish are explored through the eyes of Cortezs mistress Tecuíchpo and a fictional half-brother, the illegitimate son of Montezuma II. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: … Read more
Description: The Xavante of central Brazil and the Wayuu of Venezuela are two indigenous groups who both face considerable challenges in their efforts to maintain control over and access to one of the most basic of natural resources, fresh water. … Read more
Description: These are two short animated films set in Bolivia, one made in Bolivia and the other in Switzerland. In “Paulina,” a condor saves an Aymara girl from being obliged to become a maid in La Paz. In “En camino,” … Read more
Description: From the heart of the Altos in the Chiapaneco province of Chenalho, this community and indigenous oriented radio station broadcasts in Tzotzil and Tzeltal. The radio is an effort to strengthen their fight for justice and defend their culture … Read more
Description: A depiction of the Aztec myth of the creation of the Fifth Sun. It also explains why the Aztecs were cast out of their "Eden" resulting in their eventual conquest. Copies: 1 (DVD) Length: 91 minutes
Description: Every year in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, in Southern Mexico, thousands of Maya Indians gather to celebrate Carnival, which they call “Festival of Games”. This award winning film, which merges Catholicism and ancient Maya rights, beautifully captures the passion … Read more
Description: Documenting the most important ritual of the Enauêne-Nawê Indians, the seven months every year that the spirits of the dead are venerated with offerings of food, song, and dance so they will protect the community and bless it with … Read more
Description: In 1994 the Zapatistas reclaimed land in Chiapas’ Lacandon jungle in southern Mexico to found the Autonomous Municipality of Emiliano Zapata. Since then, they have been building a new society in which there are neither servants nor bosses. Members … Read more