Tekuanes - Guardianes del Agua

This Traveltalk series short visits the village of Chichicastenango, Guatemala and emphasizes the influence of the Mayan culture on its people. It shows how the residents intermingle ancient religious practices with Catholic teachings. Narrator James FitzPatrick introduces, and greets on camera, Father Ildefonso Rossbach, a Catholic priest who ministers to the local population in the village and outlying areas.

A Guatemalan woman, Ana Lucía Cuevas, returns home from exile to face the brutal history of Guatemala's armed conflict. In 1984, her brother Carlos was kidnapped by the state as one of thousands who were abducted and disappeared. Recounting the stories of brutal genocide, terror, state repression and violence, this film documents the memories of those victimised by the Guatemalan state.

A documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with first hand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.

In a world drifting further away from participatory food production, relying instead on large corporations to feed us, this film asks “What do we lose by giving up our responsibility to produce food?”

Jorge Luís Altuve is a young Guatemalan, passionate about mountaineering and a lover of his country. After the COVID-19 crisis and the lack of transparency in the execution of funds by the government of Alejandro Giammattei, he raised a wave of indignation that led thousands of Guatemalans to demonstrate. Jorge Luis attended the central square, when PNC agents began to intimidate the peaceful demonstrators. He and other citizens were arrested without having carried out an act of vandalism.

Denese Joy Becker, a manicurist living in Iowa, discovers she is indeed Dominga Sic Ruiz, a survivor from a 1982 Guatemalan massacre, when more than 200 people were killed in the small village of Rio Negro, after opposing the construction of a dam, sponsored by World Bank. She then tries to unveil the truth.

The Tipo Tranquilo parties arose from the initiative of three friends (Gabriel, Erick and Alejandro), who were looking for something different in the Guatemalan electronic scene. He realized several factors that affected deejays and true music lovers, for that reason they started this movement of having various parties in different places. Inviting friends in a hidden way, without much publicity, they can only be reached through a map.

Enduring 28 days of relentless construction labor, Frank struggles to prep a house for painting amidst Phoenix's scorching pandemic summer.

Claudia Paz y Paz is the head of the Guatemalan Public Prosecutor’s Office. We follow her during her four-year mandate as the Attorney General of one of the world’s most dangerous countries. This documentary closely observes her attempts to break the downward spiral of a society where drug cartels, corruption and violence have become part of daily life. She manages to improve the country’s safety and justice issues but is met with much resistance. Her commitment to the rule of law is her strength as well as her destiny. At what price do four years of service as the Attorney General of Guatemala’s murder paradise come?

MAXIMÓN - Devil or Saint is a documentary about the controversial Maya deity, also known as San Simon or the drinking and smoking saint of Guatemala. He is a mixture of ancient Maya beliefs and Christianity. The movie concentrates on the people who surround Maximón with their strong personalities, opinions and faith. The documentary gives us a rare view into the rituals and fiestas honoring Maximón. The cult of Maximón is flourishing because he performs miracles. He is also feared and despised because he is used to cast curses that can result in death. Ultimately, Maximón transcends the duality of good and evil, reflecting the Maya cosmovision in which everything in the universe co-exists.

From Sierra de las Minas to Esquipulas, explore Guatemala's cultural and geological wealth, including ancient Mayan cities and other natural wonders.

A joyous Guatemalan film about the magic and charm of puppetry. This documentary follows the charismatic artists as they make their puppets and perform. Both humorous and socially aware, their themes are drawn from classic stories, local legends and history.

A story of destinies joined by Guatemala's past, and how a documentary film intertwined with a nation's turbulent history emerges as an active player in the present.

A powerful three-part documentary studying the US involvement in Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua. The differing factions - Sandinista leaders, Guatemalan campesinos, CIA operatives, Contras and US government apologists - are interviewed and, in the absence of a controlling narration, the audience is encouraged to draw its own conclusions.

For consumers, bananas are a delicious and nutritious start to the day, a healthy snack and a fixture in our fruit bowls. For millions of residents in the banana lands, the production of bananas means social upheaval, violence and pesticide poisoning. Banana Land explores the origins of these disparate realities, and opens the conversation on how workers, producers and consumers can address this disconnect.

In this Traveltalk series short, we visit a region in Guatemala where the native Indian tribes live like their ancestors, without using most of the benefits of modern man. They not only grow their own vegetables and catch animals to eat, they also cultivate the plants they need to weave fabrics and make natural dyes from various berries and seeds.