CH’UL BE, SACRED PATH

Synopsis:

“Ch'ul be'' delves into the Tsotsil sacred path, exploring ancient collective commitments that sustain the cycle of life in community. In San Andres Larrainzar, everyone is responsible for the collective well-being, but few are chosen to follow the path of serving the gods. ''Ch'ul be'' is the path of Martha and Diego, and of Román and his son Tino. It is a journey from the everyday to the divine, from the individual to the collective, to ensure that knowledge is not lost and the cycle is not broken.

Humberto Gómez Pérez

Short Bio

Humberto Gómez Pérez was born in San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas. He’s a speaker of Tsotsil Maya and studied intercultural communication and supplemented his training through different workshops and courses in writing, technical narratives, literary and audiovisual creation and film. He has focused on the development of works and proposals in Tsotsil. Within the framework of the Documentary Film School of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, he made the short film ''J'vobtik, our music'' and finished developing ''Ch'ul be, sacred path'', his first documentary feature film.

Full Bio

Humberto Gómez Pérez was born in San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas. He speaks Tsotsil and studied intercultural communication at the Intercultural University of Chiapas. He supplemented his training through different workshops and courses in writing, technical narrative, literary and audiovisual creation and film. Within the framework of the School of Documentary Film of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, he made the short film ''J'vobtik, our music'' and finished developing ''Ch'ul be, sacred path'', his first documentary feature film.

Humberto has developed professionally in communication and the arts and culture, focusing on the development of works and proposals in Tsotsil. He has given talks in different spaces, translated scripts, provided Spanish-Tsotsil simultaneous interpreting, and organized different cultural initiatives. In 2014, Humberto founded Satil Film, an organization dedicated to the promotion and production of documentary and audiovisual film. He is a member of the civil association, Mayan and Zoque Writers Unit, and co-author of the books “Stso’op Joj, Crows' Nest”, “Sk’op bolom-sk’op choj / Words of the Jaguar”, published by UNEMAZ, and “Cuentos indígenas mexicanos desde Chiapas [Mexican indigenous stories from Chiapas]”, published by Ediciones Catay.

Statement:

Short

''Ch'ul be, sacred path'' is both a dream and reality that explore the ancestral collective commitments that sustain the cycle of life in the community. This cycle renews itself each season, each year, just like the corn, the landscape and the lake which turn green in times of celebration. I try to recall the story of my people and rebuild a part of the oral tradition that is fading, giving voice to our stories and ancestral wisdom, celebrating our collective identity that still prevails.

Full

Engraved in my memory is the time my great-grandfather bore the task of Servant to the Lady of the Assumption and it was his responsibility to organize her celebration, one of the celebrations dedicated to all of the saints and virgins or our town.

From afar, I could hear the musical notes rising into the air. I looked out and watched the musician. His hands seemed to be dancing with the harp, pulling out melodies while his expression was one of being submerged in a dream. That image, so vivid and shared by all musicians, showed me that they feel the music in the depths of their being. Interwoven in my mind are the images of my great-grandfather, his proud expression, and the deep devotion that these tasks represented for him. It was at one of these moments in his company, that we danced for the first time to the sound of the rattles. Years later, my parents would embark upon this sacred path of service to the gods, in which we participated as a family. Sons and daughters, uncles and aunts, cousins, grandfathers and grandmothers and the town, maintain it year after year. For me, this film is also a way of participating in the maintenance of this sacred path, of honoring it and expressing out loud that we are a living people.