On June 15 and 16, 2024, we will be organising the first edition of what we hope to turn into a yearly tradition: the Indigenous Film Festival Utrecht, AKA IFFU!
Two days full of interesting and thought provoking fiction films and documentaries, made by indigenous filmmakers from all over Mexico. The films are carefully curated for their high cinematic quality and the messages they bring across.
Saturday 15 June is dedicated to the cultural and linguistic diversity of Mexico. The day will begin with a talk on Mexico’s language diversity and the importance of endangered languages. The films that will be screened are a great example of the quality of cinematic work that exists within Mexico’s indigenous communities. All films will be introduced by their filmmakers, who have made short introductions providing the cultural context for their films, especially created for the festival!
But IFFU is more than just films. There will be Q&A’s with some filmmakers, an expo of beautiful illustrations by Nahua artist Cuauhtémoc Wetzka, poetry in Tu’un Savi translated into English, a talk on the language diversity of Mexico and the best cumbia music by DJ Edgar Nevermoo! Join us for the films, and stay for the discussions, music and good vibes.
You will also have the chance to buy the original artwork that is the festival’s poster, in a limited series of 55 hand printed posters, as well as beautifully designed postcards that feature the poems exhibited during the festival. The postcards are also hand printed using the risograph technique and, just like the posters, each copy is numbered. By buying this original artwork you support the festival by helping cover its costs, as this edition is not receiving any funding whatsoever.
The festival is free, and donations are more than welcome. All profits will be shared equally among everyone involved in the festival. But be quick! There is limited capacity for the film screenings, so make sure to come early.
Check out our Instagram and Facebook pages for more information about the festival.
Details
Dates: 15 and 16 June 2024, 12:00-17:00
Location: ACU, Utrecht
Entrance: free/donation-based, but with limited capacity, so be early!
Programming:
Saturday 15 June
12:00 Doors open
12:15 Talk: Language Diversity in Mexico. Linguist and translator Zoi Gialitaki will take us on a journey through the different languages spoken throughout Mexico and why we should care that they are disappearing.
13:30 Short films in indigenous languages
Kii Nche Ndutsa
Directors: Itandehui Jansen
Language spoken: Mixtec
Year: 2019
Duration: 17′
Type: Fiction
The film, an output of practice-based research, invites the audience to consider past, present and future of a changing landscape and vanishing biodiversity.
Tlaltik, The color of the Earth
Directors: Samuel Mayo & Cuauhtémoc Wetzka
Language spoken: Nahuatl
Year: 2022
Duration: 20′
Type: Documentary
The story of Candelaria Apanecatl, considered a living human treasure for her knowledge of traditional ways of preparing wool and weaving, invites us to ponder on the ways of living that we are slowly losing.
Alma y Esperanza
Director: Itandehui Jansen
Language spoken: Mixtec, Spanish
Year: 2012
Duration: 15′
Type: Fiction
Alma is a nine year old girl living in an urban environment in the U.S.. When she loses her mother, she has to travel to her grandmother Esperanza in an indigenous village in Mexico.
La Espera
Directors: Manuel Piñon; Celina Yunuen
Language spoken: Purépecha
Year: 2021
Duration: 12′
Type: Fiction
Yazmín and Zenaida, daughter-in-law and mother-in-law, live together waiting for their husbands to come back. Time will reveal infinite possibilities.
68 Voces
Director: Gabriela Badillo
Language spoken: various
Year: 2021
Duration: various
Type: Animation
“68 Voices, 68 Hearts” is an animated series narrated in the 68 Mexican indigenous languages, created under the premise that “No one can love what they don’t know”.
15:15 Break – Cumbia midparty (check out “Parallel Activities”)
16:00 Don de Ser
Director: Néstor Abel Jiménez Díaz
Language spoken: Tsotsil, Tseltal, Spanish
Year: 2015
Duration: 54´
Type: Documentary
Memory nests in the icy mountains of the Chiapas Highlands. Here begins a search for answers with characters who show their gift-of-being faced with a world that does not understand them, and who find their means of resistance in the earth. In those lands of hope and pain of the native peoples, arise the questions of someone who is captivated, without knowing why, by the different forms of resistance, thought and custom.
Sunday 16 June
12:00 Doors open
12:15 Introduction: Indigenous struggles in Mexico
12:30 The Energy of the People
Director: Marie Combe
Year: 2020
Duration: 64´
Type: Documentary
Faced with megaprojects that threaten their territories and ways of life, three rural and urban communities in Mexico and Guatemala are determined to produce their own electricity, defying the system towards a fair, people-oriented and sustainable energy model.
13:45 Post-screening discussion
15:00 The train and the península
Directors: Andreas Krueger & Sky Richards
Year: 2023
Duration: 88´
Type: Documentary
A cinematic journey along the projected route of the “Tren Maya” takes us on a thrilling ride across Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Through the fascinating stories and reflections of its inhabitants, the documentary unravels the environmental and social consequences of the development model imposed on the region.
16:30 Q&A with director Andreas Krueger
Parallel activities
Illustration and poetry expo: Artwork by Nahua illustrator Cuahuhtémoc Wetzka and poetry in Tu’un Savi by Nadia López García (translated into English by Zoi Gialitaki).
Merch stand: we will be selling limited copies of the festival’s poster, the original artwork created by Cuauhtémoc Wetzka especially for the festival! You will also be able to buy beautifully designs postcards of the Tu’un Savi poems that will be part of the exposition. All proceeds will be used to cover the costs of the festival and will be equally distributed among everyone that contributed to the festival.
Vrije Markt stand (TBC): our friends from Vrije Markt have made a selection of products from Latin America and will be selling them during the festival. From Zapatista coffee to delicious Argentinian mate, drop by to check out their extraordinary products! CANCELLED
Midparty: Who needs an afterparty when you can party in the middle of the day?! DJ Edgar Nevermoo will be playing the hottest cumbia out there!
“Merch”: Buy original artwork from our merch table; 55 numbered festival posters hand printed using the screen printing technique, 20 numbered, hand printed posters of the poems exhibited and 45 hand printed postcards, both using the risograph technique.