Indigenous Peoples and Human Rights

May 15, 2012

AIM West to screen Guatemala Lives! in San Francisco

                                                               

AIM-WEST to screen its latest documentary at San Francisco’s BRAVA Theater, Friday, June 1, 2012
By AIM West
Censored News
Watch film trailer below:
SAN FRANCISCO -- AIM-WEST, a community based inter-tribal advocacy organization, cordially invites you to its premier benefit screening of the documentary “Guatemala Lives (Vive)!” directed by De La Tierra Productions filmmaker, Adrian Carrasco Zanini.  The occasion will be held at the BRAVA Theater, 2781 24th Street, in San Francisco’s Mission District. 
The film aptly illustrates how Indigenous peoples of Guatemala are striking a new direction in contemporary governance, and calls for transparency.  Another related documentary will be shared called “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator” (English sub-titles, 103 min.) starting at 7:30 pm.  Doors open at 6:30 pm, tickets are $10, raffle, drummers, singers, vendors, and refreshments available.  The public is welcome, especially recommended for activists, students, political scientists, and Mayan families.
“Guatemala Lives (Vive)!” Is a thirty-seven minute (with English sub-titles) poignant and up-to-date account of the daily struggles of Indigenous Mayan peoples empower themselves to attain justice, self-determination, and a presence in Guatemala politics, with emphasis on the theme of participatory democracy.  The film attempts to utilize the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (Article #18) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2007, to chronicle the actions of several current social movements that are demanding answers to an unending list of demands for justice, an end to economic disparity, and their right to be dully represented in local and national governments.   
“Guatemala Lives!” introduces the newly formed WINAQ movement, the first Indigenous peoples’ political party that had Nobel Prize winner Dr. Rigoberta Menchu Tum as presidential candidate in the 2011 elections, and two other progressive political organizations (Frente Amplio); the HIJOS movement that seeks to punish those responsible for the killings and disappearances of thousands of Guatemalans during a thirty-year armed conflict that ended with the 1992 peace accords; and, success stories and small victories of progressive movements such as the forming of peasant and Indigenous people’s farming cooperatives, the pro-dwelling movements in and around Guatemala City, the efforts of local communities and human rights organization to find their family remains and bring to justice those responsible, primarily the military and police forces that conducted a policy of murder and elimination of peasant and Indigenous populations, and the youth response to their lack of a future in a outdated and obsolete form of government. 
“Granito: How To Nail a Dictator” was initially screened at the Sundance Film Festival and one year after the release of the film, the ex-dictator of Guatemala, General Efrain Rios Montt, was brought up on charges of genocide in a Guatemalan court, and placed under house arrest.  This historic event in the quest for justice in Guatemala resulted from decades of work by many, many people and the indictment was based on overwhelming evidence in the form of military documents, exhumation reports, photos and footage from this film linking Rios Montt directly to hundreds of deaths and disappearances.
The defense argued that Rios Montt did not have command responsibility over his Army officers in the highlands, and that he was not responsible for the massacres.  This is belied by a clip from “Granito” that the prosecution and the Guatemalan media used to show the general taking command responsibility, saying: “If I don’t control the army, then who does?”


Come and support the local activities of the American Indian Movement!

                                                     Freedom for Leonard Peltier, NOW!
DVD’s of “Guatemala Lives!” will be available for a donation at the event. AIM-WEST is a non-profit organization, your generous support is especially appreciated.
Wheel-chair accessible, alcohol and drug free event.
www.aimovement.org
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

For more information: 415-577-1492
www.aimwest.info
www.brava.org

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