It has been almost 20 years since Guatemala emerged from a civil war that saw 200,000 native Mayans systematically murdered by Government troops. Today the country is still rife with crime and corruption. Nearly 6,000 people are murdered in the country each year, and very few cases result in prosecution.

Burden of Peace, screened at the Frontline Club on 16 April, tells the story of Claudia Paz y Paz, Guatemala’s Attorney General between 2010 and 2014 and the first woman to hold the position. Director Joey Boink followed her during her time in office as she attempted to clamp down on corruption, end the widespread impunity and bring former dictator, Efrain Rios Montt, to justice on charges of genocide.

Director Joey Boink

After the screening, Boink answered questions from the audience about his film.

During his time living in Guatemala, the culture of violence and impunity was very evident to Boink. “For example,” he said, “a Guatemalan friend got hit by a car and died and it was very normal that the bus driver could drive away and no one asked questions about what the police would do.”

It is very common in Guatemala, Boink told the audience, that friends or relatives would be killed during robberies. “After making a film about education, we thought this is the number one issue facing the country and we have to make a film about this,” he said.

It was while Boink and his team were researching ways to tell Guatemala’s story of violence that Paz y Paz was appointed to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Paz y Paz was keen to show that there was no corruption within her office, and Boink used this desire for transparency to gain access. “When she was doing her inauguration speech she said: ‘I want to show that the doors are always open for you as journalists’, and we as filmmakers thought, well let’s use this as an invitation,” he said.

It was not always easy, however, as Boink and his team had to fight to gain access to high-level private meetings. His team’s presence also presented Paz y Paz with political problems.

Joey Boink

As a human rights lawyer, many of the decisions that Paz y Paz made during her term of office were unpopular to leading politicians and brought her under close scrutiny from the Guatemalan media. “It was not always that she wanted to show everything,” said Boink, “especially when months evolved and she got under more pressure.”

One of the media narratives that Paz y Paz’ opposition pushed was that she was under the influence of Western agents. “When we as Western filmmakers would be seen next to her, that would only give more to those campaigns, saying: ‘Look, she’s letting Western people make a promotion film about her,’” Boink said.

Paz y Paz was the first woman to take on the role of Attorney General in Guatemala and the film makes clear that the many opposing her held sexist views. However, the majority of her opposition disliked her because of her ideology and uncompromising dedication to justice, and not because of her gender.

“If she would have been a man, a lot of the critics against [Paz y Paz] would have been the same… But she also faced a lot of opposition saying: ‘Well, she cannot be in charge, there are men behind her in charge,’” said Boink.

Paz y Paz is currently living in Washington, as it remains too dangerous for her in Guatemala without the round-the-clock security that her post as Attorney General provided her.

“I’m optimistic that there will be more people like Claudia Paz y Paz who continue fighting for justice in their country,” said Boink.

“Although it’s not a film that is easy to watch for millions of people, we hope that it can reach people who are interested and we hope to have a political impact,” he said.

Joey Boink

Visit the Burden of Peace website to find out more information about the film and upcoming screenings.

Burden of Peace tells the impressive story of Claudia Paz Y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. Ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, the country today is one of the most crime-ridden in the world. Paz Y Paz starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraín Rios Montt on charges of genocide against the Mayan Indians.

Each year, nearly 6,000 people are murdered in Guatemala, and the individuals responsible almost always avoid prosecution. When Claudia Paz Y Paz took office in 2010, senior political officials openly criticised her soft spoken demeanour and questioned her ability to combat issues of crime and corruption, claiming that the position of Attorney General is not suited to a human rights lawyer.

Directed by Joey Boink
Producer: Framewerk
Duration: 76′
Year: 2015
For any enquiries contact info@framewerk.nl

“The Journey towards you Lord, is life. To set off is to die a little.” (The Migrants’ Prayer)

On Monday 7 July 2014, the Frontline Club screened Who is Dayani Cristal? The film follows actor Gael García Bernal as he retraced the footsteps of a Honduran man found dead in the Arizonan desert – one of the thousands of lives snuffed out by the lure of the American Dream.

Director and cinematographer Marc Silver joined us for the Q&A.

Director Marc Silver

Silver began with how he discovered the story:

“We actually launched a website here, about five or six years ago, asking people to send in stories of resistance against walls and barriers, and just general economic division. And one of the stories that came in was this story of skulls, in the desert.”

Gael García Bernal was on board from the outset.

“He literally sat here and launched that website,” said Silver. “So he was on board before we knew what the film was, and we were just mulling over the subject of resistance. During that research period . . . we did four short films for Amnesty, called The Invisibles, which was just set in the Mexico part of the journey. Through that we were able to recce the river crossing, the trains, the shelter system and it started to inform Gael as to what kind of journey he would go on. Even though it’s a story about one person he takes on this everyman, following in the footsteps of a loose interpretation of the migrants’ journey.”

An audience member asked how the film was made.

“Basically, it sounds crazy,” explained Silver, “but we would just rock up at each of the locations, from Guatemala through Mexico to the border and literally just try to introduce what we were trying to do. I think we created this very reciprocal relationship with the people that we were filming. . . . As you said these voices are never ever heard – and I think there was some sense of empowerment that they were able to literally teach us, or guide us through that journey.

“I didn’t just feel that because of who we met and how those conversations went down on the road,” continued Silver, “but having spent time, for example, in that village in Honduras. No one talked about these issues at home. And I was really puzzled why. Literally every teenage boy has been to America already. And they get deported and they make their journey all over again. They literally said they just don’t want their mums to know how dangerous their journey is. Because they would fear that their mums wouldn’t let them go again.”

Great documentary and Q&A tonight @frontlineclub #WhoisDayaniCristal is beautifully made and really worth a watch #migration

— Flora Carmichael (@FloraCarmichael) July 7, 2014

On my way home from #WhoisDayaniCristal screening @frontlineclub. Once again, #GaelGarciaBernal shines a light on a secret american shame.

— Jonathan Campbell (@SoundbiteCultur) July 7, 2014

Another audience member said he was struck by compassion and anger of the [North] Americans. He asked how representative they were. Silver replied:

“We made a decision from the beginning that we only wanted people in the film who had physically been in touch with that body; which allowed us not to give voice to the other side of the debate. That was like a nice creative device. But partly also it was politically, I can’t see the point of giving voice to that other side, because it exists out there. And if people are interested they can just get on google. I think the humanisation of the subject of migration you can’t really get on google to find out. So that was a political decision on our part.”

“It depends when you ask me,” responded Silver to a question on the social impact films can make.

“Sometimes I think it’s really depressing and it doesn’t. And sometimes I think it’s really inspiring and I can see that it does. . . . This sounds really sick, but people have come up to me after US screenings and said, ‘Oh I might talk to my gardener a bit differently,’ which, isn’t as big a change as I was hoping for, but is actually really significant.

“Joking aside there are around 12 million undocumented people in the US, and if you can slightly change their perspective, and make them realise their story didn’t just begin on the other side of that wall; and actually there’s a massive trajectory that’s not so different to your own trajectory – of universal feelings of, ‘I need to support my family,’ or whatever the reason is that you’re leaving home – if you can shift perception and education then maybe you can shift politics.”

Silver concluded with the universal message of the film:

“It’s not just a Mexico–US issue. The story resonates with deaths in the Mediterranean and deaths in seas off north Australia, to build a bigger conceptual coalition around militarised borders; and the story of one skull in the desert leads to this bigger conceptual understanding.”

For upcoming screenings – and to take action – see the official website and social media:
whoisdayanicristal.com
Twitter: @DayaniCrystal
Facebook: facebook.com/whoisdayanicristal

“I was fifteen when I wanted to join a gang” and to join the gang, Alma had to commit a murder. This is how Alma, now 26, opens her confession, seemingly unmoved by the violence of her memories. For five years, Alma was a member of the Maras, one of the most violent gangs in Guatemala. In a country undermined by violence, Alma is typical of her generation, growing up in a world where laws and justice were flouted with impunity.

In Alma, a Tale of Violence photographer Miquel Dewever-Plana and journalist Isabelle Fougère allow Alma to tell her story on various platforms: aside from the interactive web and tablet application, they have also created a TV version, a photography exhibition and a pair of books. The interactive tablet version brings all these elements together.

Join us for a live screening of Alma, a Tale of Violence, during which e-producer Alexandre Brachet will take us on a unique journey through Alma’s confession. Brachet will choose his path through the two image screens presented one above the other. The bottom screen simply shows Alma telling her story, the second screen contextualizes Alma’s story through Dewever-Plana’s photographs and drawings by Hugues Mìcal.

Alexandre Brachet is an award-winning e-producer and CEO of Upian, known for Gaza Sderot, Prison Valley and many other groundbreaking interactive projects.

The discussion will be moderated by WorldView, a CBA [Commonwealth Broadcasting Association] Project that aims to improve UK public understanding and awareness of the developing world via the mainstream broadcast and digital media. WorldView supports producers who aim to bring the richness and diversity of the wider-world to UK audiences.

Directed by Isabelle Fougère and Miquel Dewever-Plana
Produced by Alexandre Brachet
Year: 2012

"There’s a definite lack of leaders [today]," documentary producer Richard Symons commented to a Frontline Club audience on 8 October.  "Where are they?"

Symons had just screened the third film in his and Joanna Natasegara’s series The Price of Kings, which explores the weight of leadership.  Previous films have focused on Yasser Arafat and Shimon Peres.

One true leader, the latest Price of Kings film suggests, has been Oscar Arias, two-time President of Costa Rica.

In 1987, he famously defied American and Soviet insistence – "an incredible amount of pressure," one aide put it – that Costa Rica pick a side in the Cold War proxy battles that were tearing Central America apart.

"I had to fight Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev," Arias reflects in the film.  "It was not gonna be easy, to say to Goliath, ‘well, here’s David, little David, but we’re gonna fight for our convictions, for our principles, for our ideals."

Peace was Arias’ ideal.  With no military behind him – Costa Rica’s disbanded in 1948 – he nonetheless broke from Washington and Moscow to bring ideologically-opposed Central American leaders to a negotiating table.

"Dial back to 1986," Symons said, "if you looked at those guys and what was going on in their countries, Arias must have been absolutely off his tits to think he could even get them on the phone!"

The Esquipulas Peace Agreement resulted, settling bloody conflicts that raged between Kremlin- and American-backed groups fighting for power over Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala.  His efforts earned him the 1987 Nobel Peace Prize.

"In person, he’s an oddly persuasive man," Natasegara shared.  "He’s not necessarily hugely charismatic, and yet there’s something right about what he says, and you see how he could have convinced them."

In 2006, Arias risked his legacy by serving once more as Costa Rica’s President; the film shows how his dogged support for an unpopular mining project left his reputation among Costa Ricans in tatters. 

Today, he campaigns – so far unsucessfully – for an International Arms Treaty that would halt the flow of weapons from idustrialized nations to the third world.  

"Use the dividends of peace," Arias says simply, "[and] the world would be quite different, it seems to me."

After the screening, an audience member wondered why so many people in the film, even those very close to Arias, did not speak entirely positively about him.  Natasegara answered, 

"Ironically, I think apart from two people in the film […] everybody was very warm about him.  And I think that’s what’s nice […] that they feel so much trust in him that they can speak openly about his flaws […]  So if they speak badly towards him, it’s only because he allows this kind of openness."

The trailer for The Price of Kings:  Oscar Arias can be seen here.

By Nicole Hunt 

The week starts off with a bang as humankind hits a big milestone on Monday – the UN is marking the day as the moment the world’s population surpasses seven billion people.

A deadline set by the Arab League two weeks ago for Syrian President Bashar al Assad to open dialogue with the Syrian opposition council expires. Syria risks expulsion from the regional bloc over concerns at the rising death toll from nine months of action against anti-government protesters, which has already topped 3,000.

With Cannes off-limits to all but world leaders, the traditional anti-G20 rally is being held in Nice on Tuesday. The demonstration kicks off a four-day ‘alternative summit’, with many of the world’s biggest NGOs expected to be in attendance.

The two-day London Conference on Cybersecurity begins in London, with Foreign Secretary William Hague, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales all scheduled to speak.

Turkey hosts the Istanbul Conference for Afghanistan on Wednesday, focusing on security and cooperation in the heart of Asia; Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Afghan President Hamid Karzai are among those attending. While the Conference could have been lost in the build up to the G20, Karzai’s expected announcement of the next areas where Afghan security forces will take control from NATO is bound to keep it in the headlines.

Of course the G20 itself kicks off on Thursday, though it wouldn’t be surprising if many of the European leaders involved are quite sick of seeing each other – for some, this will be their third meeting in 12 days.

While the G20 leaders are discussing the world’s financial problems, the European Central Bank’s Governing Council will be holding the first of its two meetings this month. The meeting is the first chaired by former Italian Central Bank Governor Mario Draghi, who replaces Jean-Claude Trichet as ECB President on 1 November.

The Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca begins on Friday. The five-day festival has in recent years attracted nearly two million foreign pilgrims, making it the largest pilgrimage in the world. Muslims who have the means to make the journey are required to do so at least once during their lifetime.

The Mars500 simulated mission to Mars ‘returns’ to Earth at the Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The crew members have been in an isolation chamber for 17 months, even performing several simulated spacewalks during their journey.

Italy’s Partido Democratico holds a pro-democracy, anti-Berlusconi rally in Rome on Saturday. The opposition party is using the occasion to launch its proposals for the reconstruction of the world’s economy and an alternative to Silvio Berlusconi’s embattled government.

In Cape Town, the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, an international tribunal investigating Israeli complicity in human rights abuses against Palestinians, opens its South African evidence session, with opening remarks from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and an address from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

The week closes with two Central American elections. In Guatemala, Otto Perez Molino of the Partido Patriota faces off against Manuel Baldizon of the Libertad Democratica Renovada party in a presidential run-off. Molina won 13 per cent more of the vote in the 11 September first round election.

Meanwhile, in Nicaragua, incumbent President Daniel Ortega is eligible for a second term following an October 2009 decision by the country’s Supreme Court that removed constitutional obstacles that would have prevented him from standing again. Voters also elect members to the country’s parliament.

Argentinian photographer Walter Astrada has won the Single Image category of the BJPâ€s International Photography Award for the image above of highlighting femicide in Guatemala,

‘Most of the bodies I take pictures of was the same. Not in the case of Maira. She was not only shot but it was 16 shots. Itâ€s a lot.†He added: ‘I think itâ€s very hard to put this picture in a magazine. Pictures of a woman being killed or raped along with, I donâ€t know, perfume pictures [ads]. Itâ€s very difficult to put these things together.†link

Guatemala has the highest rate of femicide in the world. According to the Human Rights Prosecutorâ€s Office, 3,000 women were murdered in 2007 alone.