EL SILENCIO DEL NETO - Luis Argueta - 1994

 

 

 

FILMS IN CENTRAL AMERICA

(Programme of the 25th Festival of the 3 Continents, November 2003)

GUATEMALA

The Cinematograph arrived in Guatemala City eight months after it was first presented in Lyons by the Lumière Brothers. Guatemala is definitely the Central American country which has the most amazing and action-packed film history as "El Sombrerón" shows. The authoritarian regimes which ruled the country left no room for any film policy whatsoever, unlike other Central American countries at a given time. Today, Guatemala is trying to reclaim its voice and image. "Terror severed this country's vocal cords. Now we are sowing together the pieces of our tongue torn by brutality. We are able to speak again. And we also have to reclaim the history of our point of view because our eyes were put out. This is why we are currently going through a somewhat rhetorical stage in our cinema", film-maker and critic Sergio Alejandro Valdes explains. The need to tell stories through images is obvious in films such as "El Silencio de Neto" and the three features to be completed this year: "Lo que sueño Sebastian" by the Guatemalan writer Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Mario Monteferte Toledo's "Donde acaban los caminos" and Luis Argueta's digitally shot "Por Cobrar". This is a revolution in a country which has not produced any feature films for over ten years. Also, Ana Carlos and Guillermo Escalón's "Caminos del Asombro" is breaking new ground for film and video in Guatemala. This project is made up of four feature films exploring today's Guatemalan cultures, far from clichés and stereotypes. It is the first time that fiction films are entirely produced in the country with the support of the Canal 3 television channel. "Uraga" is the first part of this series and was shot in the Garifuna community in Livingston, on the Caribbean coast. It was a major TV success in the country.

URAGA - Ana Carlos and Guillermo Escalon - 2002
EL SILENCIO DEL NETO - Luis Argueta - 1994