Documentalistas indígenas en procesos de colaboración comunitaria en Chiapas

Abstract

At the end of the last century, young indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico, with the support of anthropologists, sociologists and filmmakers, started to record their communities on camera. As time has gone on, a group of 37 people, among them 12 women, have dedicated themselves to the making of documentaries. Their aim is to build the collective memory of indigenous communities and to put the cultural needs and practices of these populations, which represent almost a third of the Chiapas habitants, on the media´s agenda. In this project, based on an ethnographic methodology, seven documentalists participated. They remained true to the four ethnic principles of this state (tzotzil, tzeltal, zoque and tojolabal). The purpose of the commentary is to describe and interpret the collaborative practices that emerge in the indigenous documentary creation process, from entering the community –and obtaining all the necessary permits for filming–, to choosing the topic, the people featured and organising the post-documentary exhibition in public places where all the filming was made. This collaboration process, which documentalists have learnt on the go, results in an audio-visual product that has been enriched by differing perceptions. It reflects the aspirations, positions, needs and sentiments of a community with respect to their dances, coexistence with nature, traditional medical practices, religious ceremonies, communal area defence, and everything which they consider important to be recorded, in order to preserve their collective memory.