FFWD Weekly
Copyright © 1998 All Rights Reserved.
| TELEVISION A Place Called Chiapas Fighting the rich and the government for a little dignity, A Place Called Chiapas is a beautiful film about the Zapatistas of Southern Mexico. Wearing a balaclava, smoking a pipe and riding his horse through the jungles of southern Mexico with a Russian machine gun slung over his back, subcommandante Marcos is the symbol of the Chiapas uprising known as the Zapatistas. Director Nettie Wild's newest documentary, A Place Called Chiapas, begins and ends with this rebel icon. Even though she fails to penetrate Marcos's carefully manicured image, Wild's film is a vibrant and insightful look at the indigenous movement in Chiapas. In January 1994, the day the North American Free Trade Agreement came into effect, the Zapatistas started an armed rebellion. They claimed that the government was destroying the Native population. The final straw, according to the rebels, was the government's efforts to end the peasants' right to settle and farm in accordance with the land reforms initiated by Emilliano Zapata over 80 years ago. After briefly occupying the main towns in Chiapas in a series of battles that left 150 people dead, these modern rebels achieved a cease-fire with the Mexican government, entered into negotiations for land rights, and began setting up autonomous communities in the Chiapas highlands. When Nettie Wild arrived in Chiapas to begin filming, the negotiations had been going on for over two years. Spending eight months in the area starting in June 1996, she uncovered the spectrum of the Zapatista movement, from thousands of foreigners congregating in Chiapas to debate revolutionary ideology, to Native villagers fighting paramilitaries with rocks for control of their village. The film gives a sense of the Zapatistas' resilience, but also the difficult task they face in overcoming an intransigent government and the power of the violent paramilitaries. Staying focused on the present, Wild provides an efficient history of the indigenous struggle and the Mexican context in which it now finds itself. But even though she takes the time to bring the peace negotiations to life, Wild fails to expand on the Zapatistas' goals beyond controlling the land. Despite the charisma of Marcos and other Zapatistas, they are not the heroes of this tale. The moving element that makes this documentary worth seeing is the plight of villagers in Northern Chiapas. Far away from the effective control of the Zapatistas, Wild follows 2,000 villagers as they flee the paramilitary known as Peace and Justice. The paramilitaries are illegal, but they are supported by the wealthy ranchers and are left alone by the military and police due to their useful intimidation tactics. The villagers' efforts to return to their homes is a harrowing climax to the film that creates a tension so often lacking in documentaries. A Place Called Chiapas sets a standard for what a good documentary filmmaker can do with an evocative subject. It is beautifully filmed, dynamic and thorough. It is a story without a happy ending, but it has enough government indifference, anger and courage to show there are issues more important than the fate of the world's stock markets. |