"... the images in The Spokeswoman seeks to weave a narrative that faces not only ignorance but also the unwillingness to understand different realities. Faced with prejudice and privilege, the experience of someone who has really suffered. According to Marichuy's own convictions, the documentary is not a chronicle of her life and her frustrated campaign for the presidential candidacy, but a complex image of her mission as spokesperson for the National Indigenous Congress."
“It is not only about Marichuy and the National Indigenous Congress it is also about the struggle of various communities throughout the country that are in processes of defense of the dispossession of their lands, their waters, mining projects, fracking, and against organized crime. It was very important to have that connection, to see in a more intimate way these people who are in a struggle. I think it is a kind of very current portrait of our country ”, details Luciana Kaplan.
Marichuy wove encounters, assures Kaplan in an interview with Pie de Página. It opened many doors, witnessing the problems at ground level, adding other indigenous peoples, remote, nestled in the mountains, in the search for an alternative to neoliberal capitalism.
After this journey, and three continuous years of work, the director of the documentary affirms: "there is a very powerful collective anger in this country."
The documentary "La vocera", directed by Luciana Kaplan ("La Revolución de los Alcatraces") will premiere at the Guadalajara International Film Festival
that starts on Friday.
"It took us three and a half years to do it since it was first announced that in Mexico there would be independent candidates for the 2018 elections and the National Indigenous Congress was proposing to launch an indigenous woman," recalls Kaplan.
“... pays a hopeful tribute to indigenous women who resist and organize, with the conviction that a better world is possible. The documentary eloquently records key moments in the contemporary history of Mexico and raises a sharp questioning of our electoral system from the perspective of indigenous communities. "
In 2017, Luciana Kaplan 's globe-spanning documentary feature "Rush Hour" was selected as the best in competition at that year's Morelia Intl. Film Festival - only one of many such plaudits for the film - and the director returned to the festival Impulso section for pix -in-post with her next latest, “The Spokeswoman,” taking three of the event's five prizes.
WHAT IS SAID ABOUT THE FILM
VAGABUNDA MX
"La Vocera", a documentary starring Marichuy and the indigenous struggle
«There is a collective rage
very powerful in this country »:
Luciana Kaplan
The spokeswoman:
The strength of the indigenous struggle
But true to the style and convictions of Marichuy herself, the documentary is not a mere chronicle of her life and her frustrated campaign for the presidential candidacy, but a complex image of her mission as spokesperson for the National Indigenous Congress.
Alonso Diaz de la Vega
CATOPARD
For Marichuy it has the purpose of communicating the collective, more than a film it is an activity within the multiple tasks that must be carried out as a community, this is something that he stressed in his interventions.
Kaplan had to portray “a leader who does not want to be a leader”, which was a challenge for the narration of the documentary, but precisely that made possible the process of listening to the communities for the independent candidacy.