El Sexto Sol: Rebelion Maya en Chiapas

The Sixth Sun: Mayan Uprising in Chiapas (1996)

Just before dawn on New Year's Day 1994, armed Mayan Indians declared war on the government. They immediately seized eight towns in Chiapas and set in motion events that ripped away a facade of prosperity and stability to reveal 'the other Mexico'. They demanded land, public services and Indian autonomy - the right to communally own and farm land. They called themselves the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). This documentary features in-depth interviews with people from the EZLN, among them Subcommandante Marcos, with Bishop Samuel Ruiz from San Cristobal de las Casas, who is an outspoken practitioner of liberation theology and human rights activist. And all other sorts of actors in the conflict: peasants on the estates they have occupied, angry ranchers forced from their land, church activists, conservative Catholics, government officials, and the notorious 'guardias blancas', the private army of the landowners. THE SIXTH SUN portrays an epic confrontation pitting impoverished peasants against large landowners and government forces in Mexico poorest state, Chiapas. The film raises important questions as to what is to be judged expendable in the rush to global economic integration - whether the destruction of whole peoples and cultures that have survived over centuries is simply to be accepted as the price of 'progress'. Best Director Award, First American Indian Intercontinental Film Festival, Santa Fe, 1996; Golden Apple Award, 1997: Best Picture, North Carolina Smoky Mountain Film Festival, 1997.
 
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