About the Film

In a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced, their land stolen, where students disappear without trace following police arrest, and journalists are murdered at an alarming rate, a courageous new voice emerges: Lupita, a Tsostil Maya massacre survivor, at the forefront of a new movement of indigenous women.

If anyone can change the conscience of Mexico, it is Lupita, confronting corrupt militares, mobilizing her pueblo’s resistance, and cultivating a new generation of organized and vocal Maya activists.

The film intimately follows Lupita taking on risks and responsibility to represent her people, weaving her personal narrative into the painful revolutionary history of Mexico. Part lyrical testimony, part vérité storytelling, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the world. 

Screenings & Awards

Guardian Documentaries online starting January 5, 2021! Free streaming internationally with Spanish subtitles on Youtube.

theguardian.com/lupita

FicWallmapu Temuco, Chile in Mapuche Territory. January 25 - 31 2021. Spanish Version available worldwide.

Human Rights Film Festival Barcelona - February 25 - March 5, 2021. In the closing festival block: Que tiemble la tierra. Latinoamerica. 

Second Showing of Films created by women: “El Sueño de Alicia” Honduras. Free streaming in Honduras after registering online. From Nov 25 2020, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to Dec 10, Human Rights day.

EQUIS - Festival de Cine Feminista de Ecuador. November 11 - 22, 2020 online.

Guadalajara International Film Festival 2020 —Official Selection. Online on Filminlatino.mx in Mexico. November 24-25, 2020.

Doc NYC Nov  11 - 19, 2020 online throughout the US.

Design Week Puebla - Community screenings every Thursday from Oct 29th - Nov 19th. Oct 26 - Nov 23.

March on Washington Virtual Film Festival. September 20-27, 2020 available only in the US. US Premiere. Grand Prize — Emerging Documentary!

Guanajuato International Film Festival online in Mexico September 18th - 27th, up to 1000 views, with two autocinema screenings September 22 and 26th! Click link for more info. Extended through Oct 12th online!

Kinoki Foro, San Cristóbal de las Casas. September 24 at 6pm. In the theatre!

DOQUMENTA ON FILMINLATINO.MX until August 22, 2020 only in Mexico. Honorable Mention for Best Short Mexican Documentary!

Sheffield Doc/Fest 2020. International Premiere. Film page here. Available to stream from June 10th - November 2020 only in the UK with the Into The World Shorts block.

Ambulante Tour 2020 - Pulsos Section. Info here. Premiered May 4, 2020 online on #AmbulanteenCasa only in Mexico.

TOUR POSTPONED. March - May 2020. Querétaro, Durango, Coahuila, Ciudad de México, Chihuahua, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Puebla.

https://www.ambulante.org/documentales/lupita-que-retiemble-la-tierra/

Press Kit available here.

Poster downloadable here.

Please support us in bringing activist and protagonist Lupita (Guadalupe Vazquéz Luna) and co-producer Lalo (Eduardo Gutiérrez Pérez) on an screening tour of our short documentary throughout their organization's communities in Chiapas, México.

Las Abejas de Acteal  was formed in defense of indigenous life, autonomy and human rights with the principles of non violence in 1992. We are paring this outreach tour with the organization’s funding needs to visit their more distant communities at the end of this year or beginning of 2021. Our whole team needs your support in bringing the film to where it can have the most impact -- a film is not finished until it gets to the communities it showcases, and three years after the first shoot, we're ready to share the film with a next generation of Maya Tsostil activists and mediamakers.

Along with the Abejas de Acteal communication team, we will use these visits to provide audiovisual workshops to the youth interested in the community. Many already practice community radio and photo documentation of events for social justice. More info in the GoFundMe and video below.