Documentary Educational Resources - Filmmaker / Payrastre, Georges / All Films

Tajimoltik

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 08:56:00 GMT

The Maya calendar consists of 18 months of 20 days each, or 360 days. The five remaining days, known as the "days without name," or Chaikin, are the days of Carnival. These days of transition, which coincide with the Catholic Holy Week, are thus filled with celebrations which combine elements from Spanish Catholicism with traditional rituals and cargo fiestas. Reflections on the meaning of the colorful events of these days are offered by the French priest Michel Chanteau.

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Via Dolorosa

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 13:38:00 GMT

Via Dolorosa
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Every year, in the colonial city of Antigua, Guatemala, the "sorrowful way" of Good Friday is recreated by a path of colored sawdust and flower petals. Along this road several hundred people take turns carrying a ponderous mahoganybier. Indians from the surrounding countryside come to observe the spectacle of townspeople garbed in Biblical and Roman military uniforms. although some elements from this kind of procession have been borrowed by the Maya villagers, the contrast between the Spanish formality of this urban Via Dolorosa and the syncretic, lively, Indian festivities such as those in Tajimoltik could not be more striking.

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Brujo

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 09:36:00 GMT

Brujo
Buy Now: $320.00

Brujo is an exploration of shamanism and curing among the Mazatec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico, and among two groups of Maya Indians in southern Mexico and Guatemala. The film is divided into three sequences. The first, filmed in Chichicastenango (Guatemala), shows Diego, a shaman, cure a woman on whom a spell has been cast. The cure takes place partly in a church and partly in the mountains, where a sacrificed chicken is used to bring back the ailing woman's spirit.
The second sequence moves to Oaxaca, where a Mazatec shaman, her husband, and her patient consume hallucinogenic mushrooms. The cure, which takes place in darkness, involves a simple song (the mushroom's "voice") and dance, flowers, and the rubbing of tobacco on both the patient and the shaman's husband.
The final sequence takes place in the Chiapas highlands of Mexico, site of the festival and film Tajimoltik. The filmmakers encounter shaman Miguel, who brings them to his family home in a mountain hamlet beyond Chenalho. There he undertakes to cure filmmaker Claudine Viallon of a migraine, using candles, eggs, and incense. Miguel also discusses conceptions of the soul, death, and transmigration.

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