FILMS FROM TURTLE ISLAND & BEYOND
Understanding the earth we inhabit as our mother, as our family, may sometimes sound romantic from the outside, but it is not. Understanding ourselves as part of the earth means caring for it, respecting it, defending it, and working with the rest of the family for the common good.
Curated by Masa’n Galindo and Akira Iahtail
CICADAS
Dir. Luna Marán | Mexico, 2024
Spanish with English subtitles | 97 mins | Narrative
Yuli is the topila (auxiliary police) of San Pablo Begu´, a mountain community in the north of Oaxaca where the inhabitants on a rotating basis assume the responsibilities of self-government on a rotating and honorary basis (communality) along with their work and personal activities. Guarding the entrance to the town, she stops a group of machinery that is trying to enter the community to begin construction of a highway. When she notifies the town, no authority is aware of the project and the community goes on alert; they will have to decide whether or not to accept the highway project and its consequences.
Morelia Film Festival, 2024
RED BIRD
Dir. Segundo Carlos Fuérez | Ecuador, 2024
Chimborazo Highland Quichua with English subtitles | 72 min | Narrative, animation, experimental
Film inspired by an Ecuadorian oral story. Puka Urpi is about the adventure of Killa, a 5-year-old girl who, after the death of her mother, moves from the city to the countryside to live with her grandmother. At first, she does not understand the language or the environment, but little by little over time the girl learns from her grandmother to work the land and connects with the countryside and nature. One day the grandmother gets sick and Killa goes into the forest in search of the medicine, here she finds some red feathers that guide her to an old house where she finds something that will change her destiny.