NFB Collection
A Place Called Chiapas
19981 h 32 min 9 secFilm: Documentary
Direction: Nettie Wild
Production: Betsy CarsonSvend-Erik EriksenNettie Wild
Script: Nettie WildManfred Becker
Co-produced by NFB and Canada Wild Productions Ltd. in association with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; British Columbia Film; with the participation of Telefilm Canada; with the assistance of the British Columbia Arts Council; the Canada Council for the Arts; the Canadian Film or Video Tax Credit and with the financial participation of Rogers Documentary Fund; the Canada Television and Cable Production Fund License Fee Program.
On January 1, 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement came into force, the indigenous Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) took over five towns and 500 ranches in southern Mexico. Three years later, the Zapatistas and their charismatic leader, guerrilla poet Subcomandante Marcos, are trapped in the Locandon jungle. Surrounded by 30,000 Mexican troops, they struggle to maintain a nervous ceasefire.
Despite on-going peace talks, hundreds have been killed. Director Nettie Wild travels throughout the jungle canyons of Chiapas to capture the elusive and fragile life of a revolution threatened by right-wing paramilitary death squads. On camera, the death squads accuse the Zapatistas of violence. Off camera, they threaten to kill the film crew.
A Place Called Chiapas provides chilling insight into modern Mexico. Through eight months of filming, Nettie Wild takes the audience with her on a personal journey through fear, hope and illusion.
Subject categories
- War, Conflict and Peace > Caribbean, Central and South AmericaIndigenous Concerns
- Developing Countries > Central America and the CaribbeanIndigenous peoplesWar, Conflict and Peace
Credits
- director
- Nettie Wild
- producer
- Betsy Carson
- Svend-Erik Eriksen
- Nettie Wild
- script
- Nettie Wild
- Manfred Becker
- camera
- Kirk Tougas
- Nettie Wild
- Eduardo Herrera
- Robin L.P. Bain
- sound
- Jesus Sanchez Padilla
- Robin L.P. Bain
- editing
- Manfred Becker
- animation
- Rubén Möller
- re-recording
- Daniel Pellerin
- Peter Kelly
- music
- Joseph Pepe Danza
- Salvador Ferreras
- Celso Machado
- Laurence Mollerup