Documentalistas indígenas en procesos de colaboración comunitaria en Chiapas

At the end of the last century, young indigenous people of Chiapas, Mexico, with the support of anthropologists, sociologists and filmmakers, started to record their communities on camera. As time has gone on, a group of 37 people, among them 12 women, have dedicated themselves to the making of documentaries. Their aim is to build the collective memory of indigenous communities and to put the cultural needs and practices of these populations, which represent almost a third of the Chiapas habitants, on the media´s agenda. In this project, based on an ethnographic methodology, seven documentalists participated. They remained true to the four ethnic principles of this state (tzotzil, tzeltal, zoque and tojolabal). The purpose of the commentary is to describe and interpret the collaborative practices that emerge in the indigenous documentary creation process, from entering the community –and obtaining all the necessary permits for filming–, to choosing the topic, the people featured and organising the post-documentary exhibition in public places where all the filming was made. This collaboration process, which documentalists have learnt on the go, results in an audio-visual product that has been enriched by differing perceptions. It reflects the aspirations, positions, needs and sentiments of a community with respect to their dances, coexistence with nature, traditional medical practices, religious ceremonies, communal area defence, and everything which they consider important to be recorded, in order to preserve their collective memory. A fines del siglo pasado, jóvenes indígenas de Chiapas, apoyados por antropólogos, sociólogos y cineastas, empezaron a videograbar a sus comunidades. Al paso del tiempo, un grupo de 37 personas, entre las que se encuentran 12 mujeres, se dedican a la realización de documentales. Su propósito es construir la memoria colectiva de comunidades indígenas y posicionar en la agenda mediática las necesidades y prácticas culturales de esas poblaciones, que representan casi un tercio de los habitantes en Chiapas. Este trabajo, en el que participaron siete documentalistas que pertenecen a las cuatro etnias principales (tzotzil, tzeltal, zoque y tojolabal), profundiza en las prácticas colaborativas, que han diseñado y aprendido sobre la marcha, para desarrollar sus productos audiovisuales.