5:00pm EST - Yolik (Despacio), 2020, 30 min. Directed by Epifanía Martínez Rosete
The experiences Linda, well into old age, shares with those around her, keep her childhood memories alive: what her parents taught her and the places where she grew up. Linda shows she can age with dignity without letting go of her identity. Going slowly does not mean stopping.
** Epifanía Martínez Rosete was born in 1992 in the Nahua community of San Gabriel Chilac, Puebla. She is a graduate of the Bachelor in Communication Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has collaborated as a translator and narrator of stories in Nahuatl for various animated series for the Encyclopedia of Mexican Letters. In 2018, she was part of the sixth generation of Ambulante Más Allá, a documentary production workshop in the Training and Production area of Ambulante A.C., where she directed the short film Yolik (Despacio). Epifanía currently collaborates with Cine Inminente, a collective for the promotion and exhibition of cinema in Tehuacan, Puebla.
6:30pm EST - In This Family: A Conversation between Directors
LIVE STREAMING- Q&A/ CONVERSATION WITH THE DIRECTORS
For this live event, Maria Sojob - the documentary director of Tote/Abuelo - and Epifanía Martínez Rosete - director of Yolik (Despacio) - will be in conversation with Concepcíon Suárez, a gender and Indigenous peoples specialist. In both of this evening's films, audiences can feel the love, hardness, and persistence of the feminine. Sometimes this is due to absence, sometimes because of the shadow cast by machismo, and other times you can credit resilience. In two distant ethnic settings from intimate spaces, we meet María's artisan grandfather and Epifanía's great-aunt, the eponymous slow-living garlic planter. Their presence and words connect us with meaningful, traditional visions, where family and affection still have much to teach us. Program and moderation by María Inés Roqué.
** Epifanía Martínez Rosete was born in 1992 in the Nahua community of San Gabriel Chilac, Puebla. She is a graduate of the Bachelor in Communication Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has collaborated as a translator and narrator of stories in Nahuatl for various animated series for the Encyclopedia of Mexican Letters. In 2018, she was part of the sixth generation of Ambulante Más Allá, a documentary production workshop in the Training and Production area of Ambulante A.C., where she directed the short film Yolik (Despacio). Epifanía currently collaborates with Cine Inminente, a collective for the promotion and exhibition of cinema in Tehuacan, Puebla.
** María Sojob was born in the Tsotsil town of Chenalhó, Chiapas, Mexico. She has a Bachelor in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Chiapas and a Masters in Documentary Film from the University of Chile. Her documentaries have been presented in festivals around the world, including Berlinale, Ficvaldivia, Edinburgh International Film Festival y FICMAYAB’. In 2016, she won the Morelia Indigenous Film and Video Festival (Mexico) with her documentary Bankilal (Older Brother). Both in her research and documentary work, María explores narrative and aesthetic forms from the Mayan Tsotsil worldview. Tote/Abuelo is her directorial debut.
** Concepción Suárez Aguilar is a mother and a woman of Afro-indigenous and Chiapaneca descent. Concepción seeks to contribute to the fight for life through her work as a public educator, filmmaker and social researcher with a theoretical and political feminist, anti-capitalist and anti-racist background. In her work and political career, she has worked with indigenous and peasant women from different First Nations and organizations in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guatemala. Additionally, she is a communication scientist, the director of the renowned short documentary Koltavanej (Liberation) and has a Masters degree in Women's Studies for which she wrote an award-winning dissertation entitled "We Are Those Who Walk." She is currently pursuing a PhD in Feminist Studies and Intervention.
** María Inés Roqué is a documentarist and teacher. She started her career as a photographer and, until the early nineties, participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions. María Inés has a Bachelors in Film from Mexico’s Cinematographic Training Center (CCC), a Bachelors in Communication Sciences from the Metropolitan Autonomous University and a Masters in Cultural Development from the Autonomous University of Coahuila. María Inés has directed the documentaries Dad Ivan, Villarias Coffee and One More Day, in addition to co-directing Blind Steps, Cavallo Behind Bars and Zapatista Women. She has collaborated in the production of fiction feature films and documentaries in Mexico, Spain, Australia and Argentina. She directs the Ambulante Training and Production Area, which hosts the Ambulante Más Allá, a training program that has produced 60 documentaries between 2011 and 2021, and trained over 165 participants. She is currently collaborating with Piso 16, a cultural initiatives project by the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
7:30pm EST - Tote/Abuelo, 2019, 80 min. Directed by María Sojob
In her deeply personal debut documentary feature, Tzotzil filmmaker María Sojob documents an unexpected encounter between an old man who is going blind and his granddaughter, who has a limited memory of her childhood. As the grandfather weaves a traditional hat, the threads of family history are untangled. Between the silences, it becomes possible to understand the meaning of love in Tzotzil. A deceptively simple film, Tote/Abuelo is a complex portrait that contrasts the point of view of a younger generation with a traditional world that was largely marginalized.
** María Sojob was born in the Tsotsil town of Chenalhó, Chiapas, Mexico. She has a Bachelor in Communication Sciences from the Autonomous University of Chiapas and a Masters in Documentary Film from the University of Chile. Her documentaries have been presented in festivals around the world, including Berlinale, Ficvaldivia, Edinburgh International Film Festival y FICMAYAB’. In 2016, she won the Morelia Indigenous Film and Video Festival (Mexico) with her documentary Bankilal (Older Brother). Both in her research and documentary work, María explores narrative and aesthetic forms from the Mayan Tsotsil worldview. Tote/Abuelo is her directorial debut.
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