The decolonial empathy of two Maya documentaries shown at the XIII CLACPI film festival : FicMayab

Abstract

In this article, I analyze two short documentaries Kat at Kat’ex? (2017) and Sepur Zarco: la vida después de la sentencia (2018), both directed by the Maya-K’iche-Kaqchikel media maker from Guatemala, Eduardo Say, and shown at the XIII CLACPI Film Festival-FicMayab’. Both movies feature Mayan witnesses to and survivors of the violence of the civil war in Guatemala. They share their stories of loss and pain with the diverse audiences convened by the festival. I argue that these movies, in referring to the past, constitute platforms in which these witnesses enact forms of reproduction of life through embodied social practices and acts of care that, in turn, portray them as agents of the reconstitution of their own present. I contend that these movies extend an invitation to the Western(ized) viewer to relate to the Maya testimonios of pain and realities, both within the films’ frame and outside of it. I use the term “decolonial empathy” to refer to this invitation that considers the Maya peoples’ self-determination in the face of state violence and its legacies.