Filmographies - films at UST by Country: Guatemala

Depicts the extreme economic realities that coexist in society today: wealthy lifestyles afforded through illicit activities and the plight of the poor who are immersed in a world of violence void of opportunities. The convergence between the two is the commercialization of drugs and all of its deadly ramifications.

Set in the remote mountain jungles of Guatemala, Mayan peasants, tired of being thought of as nothing more than 'brazos fuertes' (manual laborers), begin organizing in an effort to improve their lives. The Guatemalan army retaliate by destroying their village and killing their families. One teenage boy, Enrique, and his sister, Rosa, barely escape the massacre and flee to 'el norte.' Aided by friends and a veteran immigrant, they make their way by truck, bus and other means to Los Angeles, where they try to make a new life."--

Filmed in the colonial city of Antigua, The Silence of Neto tells the politically-charged story of a young boy striving to follow his dreams while his country struggles to preserve democracy amidst CIA cold-war propaganda. Through the eyes of young Neto, we are given an authentic insider's look at the diverse people of Guatemala and the historical events that have shaped their destiny.

Focuses on American military intervention in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Chile, and El Salvador. Discusses the roots of dictatorship, its effects on citizens, movements toward majority rule, and communist influences.

For almost 2000 years, the ancient Maya of Central America recorded their history and ideas in an intricate and beautiful hieroglyphic script. Then, in the 16th century, Spanish invaders burned their books and ruthlessly extinguished hieroglyphic literacy. By the 18th century, when stone inscriptions were discovered buried in the jungles of Central America, no one on earth could read them. Breaking the Maya Code is the story of the 200-year struggle to unlock the lost secrets of this ancient civilization.

This film tells the impressive story of the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize nominee, Claudia Paz y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor's Office of Guatemala. The country that has been ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, is today one of the most violent countries in the world. Claudia starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraim Rios Montt on charges of genocide.

Profiles Duly, Paul and Jeneir, three children in Central America whose farming families are responsible for growing products that are everyday staples in our society. This film shows what a fair trade farm look like, and how it differs from the large industrial farms that threaten the livelihood of these children's families. While they are unsure of what the future holds, these children have a deep love and respect for the land and for their duties on the farms.

Traveler Justine Shapiro starts her journey in Merida, Mexico, the capital of the Yucatan peninsula, where she takes in the Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and Tulum. She then travels south through Belize to Guatemala. Further south Neil Gibson begins his journey in the Costa Rican capital of San Jose traveling through the Monteverde Cloud Forest before ending his journey in turbulent Nicaragua.

Follows the steps that led to the first mass in honor of the Black Christ of Esquipulas at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, and explains the origin of the mass and significance of the event for immigrants from Guatemala.

For centuries the rain forests of Guatemala guarded an astonishing secret. Here can be found the cradle of one of the most remarkable civilizations the world has ever seen. Explore with National Geographic the last frontier of knowledge about the Ancient Maya as archaeologists uncover evidence of an early Maya culture more dynamic and sophisticated than ever believed.

Follows the efforts of Jennifer Harbury to find the truth about her husband Everardo, a Guatemalan revolutionary who disappeared after capture by government forces. Explores the involvement of the CIA and other U.S. governmental bodies in this and related events.

Denese Becker, born Dominga Sic Ruiz, is a survivor of the 1982 Rio Negro massacre in Guatemala. Nine years old at the time of the massacre, during which both of her parents were killed, Denese was adopted by an American family and raised in Iowa. As an adult she begins to confront her memories and nightmares, returning to Guatemala almost twenty years after the massacre and ultimately becoming an advocate for the victims and survivors at great personal cost.

In a forgotten massacre during Guatemala's decades-long civil war, a young boy was spared, only to be raised by one of the very soldiers who killed his family. Nearly 30 years after the tragedy, it will take a dedicated team--from a forensic scientist to a young Guatemalan prosecutor--to uncover the truth and bring justice to those responsible... by finding the missing boy named Oscar.

Mexico, crimes at the border: In a joint project with the New York Times, Frontline/World correspondent Lowell Bergman investigates the business of human smuggling across the busy ports of entry between Mexico and the United States. In Tijuana, masses of people attempt to cross illegally every day with the help of increasingly organized and expensive smugglers.

Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt was a military leader in Guatemala during the early 1980s. He was responsible for over 200,000 deaths of Mayans. The filmmaker Pamela Yates was making the documentary "When the mountains tremble" there at the time, and her film was later entered as evidence by lead counsel Almudena Bernabeu during the genocide trials of seven Guatemalan military officials. This film tells the story of five main characters whose destinies collided in the Guatemala of 1982.

Owners of small coffee farms and members of the the coffee cooperative Manos Campesinas are interviewed in this documentary about coffee production in Guatemala. Thanks to the Fair Trade Market, a European organization that guarantees a price for the farmers and finds buyers, cooperative members are earning 40% more than independent small farmers who sell on the local market.

It examines the submissiveness of upper-class women; a new emerging middle class who are defying tradition to fight for their rights; and the indigenous population, who are segregated and discriminated against.

This film documents how over past decades the United States attempted regime changes in various parts of the world. It also shows that democracy was never a US objective as it interfered illegally in other countries' affairs. The film dramatically reveals the difference between official claims and the effects of American policy on the lives of people in Central America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East.

A dreamlike depiction of the daily lives of Mayans living on a coffee plantation at the base of an active volcano. A ... fusion of fact and fable, this ... film is an immersive journey into its characters' customs and beliefs, chronicling with unblinking realism disappearing traditions and a disappearing people.

"Adela, 27, left home for work one day and never returned. Her ex-boyfriend beat her until she was unrecognizable and left her at the side of the road. Her story is all too familiar in Guatemala, where 6,000 women have been murdered in the last decade. Only 2% of those killers have been sentenced. Adela's sister Rebeca, 34, is determined to see that Adela's killer is held accountable.

A report on violence against women in Guatemala, in recent years. Decades of civil war had left the country awash with guns and drugs. As more women leave home for school and work, they have become targets. At least two women are being murdered, per day. There exists a culture of violence, where women are the prey, attacks have become accepted, and even common place. Their murderers know they will never be caught, because most murders are never investigated and no one is charged. University students, Claudina and Titina, and school-girl, Stephanie were amongst more than 1,500 Guatemalan women, who have been murdered in the last four years. The police and homicide department seem indifferent to, uninterested in, the alarming figures, claiming that such killings were crimes of passion, or that the victims were in gangs involved in organised crimes. The growing number of women murdered is due to impunity and inefficiency. Includes interviews with families of the murdered women in this report; and with Norma Cruiz, human rights activist who helps such families seek justice.

During the 1980's, the CIA backed the Guatemalan government's efforts to destroy the resistance movement that was growing among the indigenous Maya peoples. Human rights organizations around the world condemned the army's "scorch and burn" policy, whereby teh government backed militia razed over indigenous 200 villages along the Mexican/Guatemalan border in their attempts to crush the guerillas. Thousands of Maya fled across the border into Mexico seeking refuge and ti save their lives. This is a story of Ricardo who fled his village in Guatemala to seek refuge with his family in Mexico. After spending years in a refugee camp, he and his family crossed into the United States illegally seeking to join other family members in Kansas. With the help of the "sanctuary movement," members of a church and synagogue helped the family settle in Chicago where they could tell their story and help to make changes in Guatemala.

The story of an ordinary man, whose life affected the lives of the filmmakers for over 25 years. Wenceslao Armira, a Mayan Indian, who was an illiterate peasant until the arrival of a foreign aid project, became a teacher, community organizer, guerilla, then Mayan priest. His life raises questions about social justice, life choices and the cost of commitment.

The Maya are best known for their spectacular architecture that made up their city centers, but they are also the most misunderstood of the great ancient civilizations. First, they were not the blood thirsty warrior society as they are often portrayed; and second, they were the world's first environmental farmers, creating a thriving agriculture society on poor land through advanced farming techniques and a profound sensitivity to their environment.

While Europe was in the midst of the Dark Ages, the Maya of Central America were developing a culture responsible for a complicated writing system, mathematic and astrological calculations and archeological marvels. Explore ruins in the jungles of Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala to understand a people both sophisticated and bloodthirsty and a society that collapsed with mysterious speed.

Diamond Factory: A blindfolded Tyson is led to a top-secret 'diamond farm' to investigate breakthroughs in the engineering of artificial diamonds. Indistinguishable from the real thing, these glittering creations may one day adorn more than ring fingers. They could replace silicon transistors in everything from supercomputers to high-speed electric trains.
Anthrax Investigation: Using an ingenious technique that highlights key mutations in a strain of anthrax, researchers can use genetic 'fingerprinting' to trace the source of the strain. This revolutionary technique also has the potential to find the source microbe responsible for anything from food-borne poisoning to deadly health epidemics. Auto-Tune: NOVA scienceNOW talks to the engineers behind 'Auto-Tune,' the pitch correction software that turns sour notes into sweet one-and that is used by everyone from Madonna to Snoop Dogg. But can Auto-Tune turn host Neil deGrasse Tyson into a singing star? Profile-Luis Von Ahn: From growing up in Guatemala, where his family owned a candy factory, human computation expert Luis Von Ahn, 30, went on to become a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, where he works to combine the best skills of both humans and computers, capitalizing on the countless hours that humans waste at computers, furthering the intelligence of computers, and hopefully benefiting humankind.

Portrays the creation myth of the Quiché Maya of ancient Guatemala and Mexico. Gives life to the mystic history and art of the Maya, using animated drawings taken directly from classic Maya pottery.

Story of two towns linked by immigration, family, and work: Jacaltenango, a highland Maya town in Guatemala; and Jupiter, a coastal resort town where many Jacaltecos have settled in Florida. The film chronicles a story of how and why people migrate across borders, how people make and remake their communities when they travel thousands of miles from home, and how people maintain families despite their travel. News of undocumented immigrants is familiar in nearly every community across the U.S., and citizens must choose how they respond to this issue.

Qak'aslemal (our existence) presents the diverse worlds that form the multicultural and multiethnic complex Guatemala. Through the personal view of its director, we see a knitting of images of Guatemalan people, the surroundings, jobs and traditions in four musical movements: Genesis, Cultures, Religion and Death. The arid view of the sandstone pillars of Momostenango, the hands of the women weavers of San Juan la Laguna, the huge kites of Sumpango and the ruins of the Mayan civilization are some of the images registered to make an analogy with the cycle of life, in a perfect balance of beauty and reality.

An interview with Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian rights advocate from Guatemala. Topics discussed include her life at home and in exile, her autobiographical book, and her associations with political organizations.

An interview with Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian rights advocate from Guatemala. Topics discussed include her life at home and in exile, her autobiographical book, and her associations with political organizations.

Vol. 2: Greece: 500 years before the birth of Christ, the small city-states of Greece began a period of cultural excellence, and none was more advanced than Athens. Discover the architectural, intellectual and artistic achievements of the period, and the elements that led to the end of the glorious "moment of excellence." China: Study the "dynasties of power" from the 2nd century B.C. through the rise of the first emperor to discover the achievements of ancient China. While uniting a vast land the Chinese built the 2,600-mile Great Wall, invented paper, printing, the compass and the world's first system of justice. Rome: Rome developed from a town on the Tiber River to a formidable power that dominated the world as it was known. See what researchers have discovered about life in ancient Rome, from the harsh life of a legionnaire on guard at Hadrian's Wall to the gladiators in the Colosseum.

Coffee is second only to oil as the world's most valuable traded commodity, but small scale producers rarely profit from it. This program reveals the hardship and uncertainty faced by coffee farmers in Guatemala, and how many are taking steps to obtain better prices and build better lives. Analyzing the country's traumatic history and the lingering effects of its civil war, the video sheds light on the reluctance of some citizens to organize for fear of persecution and murder.

A documentary describing the struggle of the Indian peasantry in Guatemala against state and foreign oppression. Uses a variety of formats--interviews, direct address, newsreels,
re-enactments, video transmissions, and live footage shot at great hazard. Loosely centered on the experiences of a 23 year old Indian woman now living in exile.