OU To Host Mayan Film Festival

Explore Mesoamerica through a Mayan Film Festival at the University of Oklahoma.There will be two events: a showing of two short films with a panel discussion featuring the screenwriter of one short, and a week later there will be a screening of a feature-length documentary followed by a Q&A with the film’s director. There will be subtitles in English for all films and receptions after each event.

Join us on Monday, Nov. 6 at 7 p.m. in the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation Auditorium in Gaylord Hall for a showing of two short films in Mayan languages: The Chuj Boys of Summer, about an Indigenous Chuj boy who moves to Colorado from Guatemala, winner of the South by Southwest Special Jury Award in 2021, and Campesino, the story of a family's struggle after the death of the father in a Ch'ol community in southern Mexico. Stay for a panel discussion with Justin Royer, Ph.D., a professor of linguistics at UC Berkeley) and Carol Rose Little, Ph.D, a professor of linguistics at OU, who are both specialists in the Mayan languages featured in the shorts, and Luz Vázquez, screenwriter of Campesino. Mr. Claudio Uribe, the Vice-Consul of Mexico in Oklahoma, is an honored guest for the event.

Vázquez is from Yajalón, Mexico and grew up speaking Ch’ol. Her motivation to write the script for Campesino came from her father.

“What motivated me to create Campesino was to share a little of my father's story,” she said. “Furthermore, it was important to create something in my language because I had never seen a film in Ch'ol. With this short film I knew I could reach more people and let them know that our language is valuable and that we can make any type of art with our language.”

On Wednesday, Nov. 15 at 3 p.m. in the Robert S. Kerr Auditorium at the Sam Noble Museum, attend a special screening of Tote/Abuelo, a feature-length documentary in the Tsotsil Maya language about identity, family and indigeneity in Mexico. This documentary received awards such as the Ambulante Special Award for a Mexican Feature-Length Documentary and Best Mexican Documentary Made by a Woman in 2019 at the Morelia International Film Festival. Edurne Pineda, the honorable Consul of Mexico in Oklahoma, will be present and briefly address the audience. The film's director, María Sojob, will be attending the showing for a Q&A with the audience after the screening.

Sojob is from Chenalhó, a Tsotsil community in southern Mexico. Sojob speaks and works in Tsotsil, a Mayan language spoken by over a half million people in Mexico and diaspora communities across North America.

I asked Sojob what motivated her to make the documentary about her grandfather, or tote in Tsotsil. 

"The first motivation was to leave a record – both visual and auditory – of my grandfather's life, and above all, his work making traditional hats. I made it when I did because he was sick and going blind; time was passing very quickly," she said. "As he began to age, he was no longer the grandfather who used to scare me. Instead he inspired a tenderness in me, a need to get to know him and establish a relationship with him. That need led me to convince him to let me record our interactions. Through visiting him, many questions arose: why didn’t I have a close relationship with my grandfather, with my home territory, with my life in that community? The only link I had was the Tsotsil language, which, despite years of oppression continues to live on."

"Between different territories – Maya and non-Maya – and between different languages – Spanish and Tsotsil – the story and the film are woven together, I seek to find answers about affection, emotions, and love. The fabric of the hat becomes the metaphor that connects these worlds and, little by little, weaves together the answers," she added.

We are delighted that Sojob will be in Oklahoma from Nov. 13-15. I asked her what she is looking forward to during her visit.

“I look forward to being able to share the film with those in Oklahoma, to rediscover the questions that made it possible through an outside lens and with people who want to experience the images and sounds of another territory, another world that is similar in some ways, but also different in others. I hope that they too can feel the threads of language that connect us all,” she said.

The presentation of these events are, in part, the results of years of research on the linguistics and culture of the Maya communities in Mesoamerica and presented at OU thanks to the support of the Department of Modern Languages, Literature and Linguistics; Arts and Humanities Forum; the Public Fellowship Center for the Americas; Native Crossroads Film Festival; the Departments of Native American Studies and Film and Media Studies; World Literature Today; and the Latin America Sustainability Initiative. We hope you all enjoy this exquisite exploration of Mesoamerica through its native voices and views.