Mother Tongue Film Festival

The films which were translated and subtitled as part of the project’s activities were premiered internationally in their new English versions at the Mother Tongue Film Festival held at the Smithsonian in Washington DC during February 2020. The production of new film materials – suitable for research, teaching and exhibition – as part of the grant was anticipated as a means to open up new spaces of dissemination and critique for these works.

Marilen Llancaqueo (Mapuche), Raúl Máximo Cortes (P’urhépecha), Eduardo Say (Kaqchikel) all attended the festival for its four-day duration and generously contributed their time and expertise to the event. The four films were screened as the Cinemática Indígena sidebar on Friday 21 February, 2020, at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution), one of several venues that join together to bring this annual celebration of linguistic diversity in cinema to life.

DC was cold but beautifully sunny during our visit and by some miracle the event concluded just days before the full repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis would reach Abiayala.