Indigenous Film Index: Central America

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Films by Culture groups

Maya Civilizations
Mazatec
Nahua
Zapotec


Maya Civilizations


The Maya are an Indigenous people of Mexico and Central America who have continuously inhabited the lands comprising modern-day Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Campeche, Tabasco, and Chiapas in Mexico and southward through Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and Honduras. The designation Maya comes from the ancient Yucatan city of Mayapan, the last capital of a Mayan Kingdom in the Post-Classic Period. The Maya people refer to themselves by ethnicity and language bonds such as Quiche in the south or Yucatec in the north (though there are many others).

Films

Brujo (1978)
Brujo
Georges Payrastre, Claudine Viallon

Gods and Kings (2012)
Gods and Kings
Robin Blotnik

Incidents of Travel at Chichen Itza (1997)
Incidents of Travel at Chichén Itzá
Jeffrey Himpele, Quetzil Castañeda


The Living Maya (1985)

The Living Maya
Hubert Smith


Maya Lords of the Jungle (1981)

Maya Lords of the Jungle
John Angier, Michael Ambrosino


Popol Vuh (2006)

Popol Vuh
Ana María Pavez


Sastun (2002)

Sastun
Guido Verweyen


Tikal (1961)

Tikal
Karl Heider


Via Dolorosa (1978)

Via Dolorosa
Georges Payrastre, Claudine Viallon


Tajimoltik (1978)
Tajimoltik: Five Days without Name
Georges Payrastre, Claudine Viallon

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Mazatec


The Mazatec are an Indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit the Sierra Mazateca in the state of Oaxaca and some communities in the adjacent states of Puebla and Veracruz. The Mazatecan languages are a group of related Indigenous languages spoken by some 200,000 people. The name Mazatec means “Deer People” in the Nahuatl language.

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Films

Brujo (1978)
Brujo
Georges Payrastre, Claudine Viallon

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Nahua


The Nahua people, bound together by a shared culture and language (Nahuatl), dominated central Mesoamerica in 1519. The best-known members of this group are the Mexicas of Tenochtitlán (popularly referred to as Aztecs), but there were a large number of individual Nahua states in the Basin of Mexico and adjacent areas, including Texcoco, Cholula, and Tlaxcala.

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Films


A Long Journey to Guadalupe (1996)

A Long Journey to Guadalupe
Juan Francisco Urrusti


Waaki (Sanctuary) (2019)

Waaki (Sanctuary)
Victor Masayesva Jr.

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Zapotec


The Zapotecs (Zoogocho Zapotec: Didxažoŋ) are an indigenous people of Mexico. The population is concentrated in the southern state of Oaxaca, but Zapotec communities also exist in neighboring states. The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotēcah (singular tzapotēcatl), which means “inhabitants of the place of sapote”. The Zapotecs call themselves Ben ‘Zaa, which means “The Cloud People”. The Zapotec languages are a group of around 50 closely related indigenous Mesoamerican languages that constitute a main branch of the Oto-Manguean language family and which is spoken by the Zapotec people from the southwestern-central highlands of Mexico.

Films


Little Injustices (1981)

Little Injustices
Terry Kay Rockefeller, Michael Ambrosino

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