NICHIMAL SON - Blooming Music

Synopsis:

Elvia arrived in Zinacantán out of love for her husband. She adapted to the life of the Zinacanteco woman and had to take her nahual, her spiritual animal companion, to the sacred corral of the Zinacantecos to be a member of the community, to continue taking care of her family.

Juan Javier Pérez

Short Bio

Juan Javier Pérez was born in 1989 in Chiapas, Mexico, in the Maya Tsotsil village of Zinacantán. Since he was a child, he has participated in ceremonies of his community as a companion of his father, a renowned traditional musician. Alongside with cousins and friends, he began an exploration of sounds typical of Zinacantán culture and he is the drummer of the tsotsil rock band "Yibel". He studied a degree in Intercultural Communication at the UNICH and then Documentary at the Documentary Film School of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. "Vaychiletik" is his first documentary feature film.

Full Bio

Juan Javier was born in 1989 in Chiapas, Mexico, in the Mayan Tsotsil village of "Sots'Leb" - "place of the bats" - known as Zinacantán since the Spanish conquest. From the age of 8, Juan Javier attended community ceremonies with his father and learned to play the Zinacanteco drum until he became part of a group of traditional musicians. He studied a degree in Intercultural Communication at the Intercultural University of Chiapas, and his first approach to cinema was through various documentary film workshops, awakening the need to tell about life from his culture. As part of the Documentary Film School of San Cristobal de Las Casas he made his first short film "Nichimal Son" (Blooming Music) and developed his first feature film "Vaychiletik" (Dreams). In 2017 he participated with this documentary project in PlataformaMX, as part of the Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival DOCSMX, where he won an award to participate in the TFI Network 2018, Tribeca Film Institute, in New York City. In 2021 he premiered "Vaychiletik" at the Latin American Film Festival of Biarritz (France), winning a Special Jury Award. The film has been screened at more than 40 festivals around the world, winning several awards, including a Special Jury Mention at the Morelia International Film Festival (Mexico) and the Living Heritage Prize at the Jean Rouch International Film Festival (France).

Statement:

“Nichimal Son - Blooming Music” is a short documentary film that emerges from my personal experience, a story that I discovered and knew little by little, alongside my own identity, during the time that I lived in my community of Zinacantán. It is the story of a mother, who represents the woman who fights, who dreams, resists and blooms. I share a small fragment of my past, present and future by showing the daily life of my mother, who had to learn to work harvesting flowers in order to fit in an unknown culture, but who always lived happily despite every obstacle of life. I am infinitely proud of my mother and I want to honor her and all other zinacanteco women with this short work.