From Sierra de las Minas to Esquipulas, explore Guatemala's cultural and geological wealth, including ancient Mayan cities and other natural wonders.
Social & External
Unknown Role
This FitzPatrick Traveltalk short visits Guatemala City, touching upon its sights, customs, and history.
During the 2020 pandemic summer, El Colegio de la Desextinción infiltrated into the holidays of four Divine Caste’s descendants. This elite built its wealth on slavery in the sisal plantations of Yucatán, Mexico, at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. Every year these families move to their opulent summer houses at Chicxulub Puerto, built at the same place where the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs hit. In these apocalyptic beaches, seducers of asteroids and conquistadors, we proposed the young heirs to write and star in a film about Chicxulub’s crater, in which they staged their entrepreneur fantasies.This documentary is the result of the political unconsciousness of this peninsular ethnic group.
A documentary on the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population, with first hand accounts by Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú.
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.
Widows is a documentary about the wives of pilots, who have been killed while working on the streets of Guatemala City. Being a van or taxi driver in the Central American country is considered one of the most dangerous jobs in the world.
Enduring 28 days of relentless construction labor, Frank struggles to prep a house for painting amidst Phoenix's scorching pandemic summer.
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.
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.
Five Years North is the coming-of-age story of Luis, an undocumented Guatemalan boy who just arrived alone in New York City. He struggles to work, study, and evade Judy - the Cuban-American ICE officer patrolling his neighborhood.
Since 1999, more than 2,000 women have been murdered in Guatemala, with numbers escalating every year, yet lawmakers and government officials turn a blind eye. Powerful and uncompromising, Killer's Paradise uncovers an emotionally wrenching human rights tragedy, while exposing an inept judicial system that allows it to happen. After almost four decades of civil war, Guatemala is a troubled society, but it can also be seen as a microcosm of the pervasive violence and injustice against women worldwide.
Every day dozens of decommissioned school buses leave the United States on a southward migration that carries them to Guatemala, where they are repaired, repainted, and resurrected as the brightly-colored camionetas that bring the vast majority of Guatemalans to work each day. Since 2006, nearly 1,000 camioneta drivers and fare-collectors have been murdered for either refusing or being unable to pay the extortion money demanded by local Guatemalan gangs. LA CAMIONETA follows one such bus on its transformative journey: a journey between North and South, between life and death, and through an unfolding collection of moments, people, and places that serve to quietly remind us of the interconnected worlds in which we live.
How do 1.1 billion people around the world live on less than one dollar a day? Four young friends set out to research and live this reality. Armed with only a video camera and a desire to understand, they spend just 56 dollars each for 56 days in rural Pena Blanca, Guatemala. They battle E.Coli, financial stress, and the realization that there are no easy answers. Yet, the generosity and strength of their neighbors, Rosa, Anthony and Chino gives them resilient hope. They return home transformed and embark on a mission to share their new found understanding with other students, inspiring and challenging their generation to make a difference.
Through dances and games, migrant boys and girls who live in a shelter in Reynosa, on the US-Mexico border, shared their dreams and stories of hope with us.
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.
One of the great mysteries of history is how the ancient Maya built such an incredible society in a tropical rainforest over two thousand years - and then vanished. How? Why? New discoveries and new science can now tell the story.
James A. FitzPatrick takes a look at colorful Guatemala.
Mayan Renaissance is a feature length film which documents the glory of the ancient Maya civilization, the Spanish conquest in 1519, 500 years of oppression, and the courageous fight of the Maya to reclaim their voice and determine their own future, in Guatemala and throughout Central America. The film stars 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate and Maya Leader Rigoberta Mencu Tum. All of the images, voices, expert commentary and music in the film come directly from Central America, the heart of the Mayan World.
"Mother Tongue" chronicles the first time a documentary film about Guatemalan genocide in Guatemala was translated and dubbed into Maya-Ixil—5.5% of whom were killed during the armed conflict in the 1980s. Told from the perspective of Matilde Terraza, an emerging Ixil leader and the translation project’s coordinator, "Mother Tongue" illuminates the Ixil community’s ongoing work to preserve collective memory.
From a historic genocide trial to the overthrow of a president, the sweeping story of mounting resistance played out in Guatemala’s recent history is told through the actions and perspectives of the majority indigenous Mayan population, who now stand poised to reimagine their society.
From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion—unleashing joy, art, and radical truth in a fight for survival.
THE SPIRIT MOLECULE weaves an account of Dr. Rick Strassman's groundbreaking DMT research through a multifaceted approach to this intriguing hallucinogen found in the human brain and hundreds of plants, including the sacred Amazonian brew, ayahuasca. Utilizing interviews with a variety of experts to explain their thoughts and experiences with DMT, and ayahuasca, within their respective fields, and discussions with Strassman’s research volunteers, brings to life the awesome effects of this compound, and introduces us to far-reaching theories regarding its role in human consciousness.
A look at the origins, history and conspiracies behind the "Majestic 12", a clandestine group of military and corporate figureheads charged with reverse-engineering extraterrestrial technology.
A documentary that explores the downloading revolution; the kids that created it, the bands and the businesses that were affected by it, and its impact on the world at large.
A visual montage portrait of our contemporary world dominated by globalized technology and violence.
JB Smoove and Martin Starr host a celebration of 20 years of "Spider-Man" movies, from the Sam Raimi trilogy to Marc Webb's movies and the trio from Jon Watts.
James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici go on an adventure to find the lost city of Atlantis by using Greek philosopher Plato as a virtual treasure map.
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
When Dr. Indiana Jones – the tweed-suited professor who just happens to be a celebrated archaeologist – is hired by the government to locate the legendary Ark of the Covenant, he finds himself up against the entire Nazi regime.
A documentary focused on plastic pollution in the world's oceans.
Described as being a film about determination, danger and the ocean’s greatest depths, James Cameron's "Deepsea Challenge 3D" tells the story of Cameron’s journey to fulfill his boyhood dream of becoming an explorer. The movie offers a unique insight into Cameron's world as he makes that dream reality – and makes history – by becoming the first person to travel solo to the deepest point on the planet.
The life and career of an actor, artist, and icon. His own journey through his own camera.
Scientists examine underground clues from over 250,000 years ago that raise questions about our early relatives — and what it truly means to be human.
The Crash Reel tells the story of a sport and the risks that athletes face in reaching the pinnacle of their profession. This is Kevin Pearce’s story, a celebrated snowboarder who sustained a brain injury in a trick gone wrong and who now aims, against all the odds, to get back on the snow.
This documentary focuses on the actors and their journey over two summers to create the remake to the original IT, by Stephen King. The documentary originally released as bonus material, bundled with IT: Chapter Two.
Join director Clint Eastwood and his creative team, along with Bradley Cooper and Sienna Miller, as they overcome enormous creative and logistic obstacles to make a film that brings the truth of Navy SEAL Chris Kyle's story to the screen.
Long-lost footage from Elvis Presley's legendary Las Vegas residency in the 1970s woven together with rare 16mm footage from Elvis on Tour, and 8mm from the Graceland archive, plus recordings of Elvis telling "his side of the story" rediscovered during Baz Luhrmann's research for his 2022 film, Elvis.
Interviews with leading authors, philosophers and scientists, with an in-depth discussion of the Law of Attraction. The audience is shown how they can learn and use 'The Secret' in their everyday lives.
Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.
Various MGM stars from yesterday present their favorite musical moments from the studio's 50 year history.
A documentary chronicling Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour's preparations for the 2007 fall-fashion issue.
