28 Jan Once banned, now celebrated

We’ve been invited by the Fundación Ixcanul, founded by Guatemalan film director Jayro Bustamante (Ixcanul, La Llorona), to collaborate on a 5-city tour of Guatemala with our documentary When the Mountains Tremble from January 31-February 5, 2025. The tour commemorates the film’s 40+ anniversary, highlighting the legacy of our iconic documentary that marked a milestone in the history of Guatemala, and in world cinema. The tour also acknowledges that for almost two decades the film was prevented from being shown in the country in which it was made. Now we’ll play in San Lucas Tolimán (Lake Atitlán), Rabinal, Guatemala City, and Quetzaltenango (Xela).

Fundación Ixcanul and Skylight have joined forces for this tour, consolidating our conviction that film is a powerful tool to explore social issues and promote change. The Executive Director of Fundación Ixcanul, Alba Carrasco Perez observed:

When the Mountains Tremble marks a turning point in global awareness of human rights and transitional justice. Its message has remained a beacon of hope and critical awareness for generations of viewers around the world. At Fundación Ixcanul we share this commitment to historical memory and democracy, promoting through film a constant call for justice, equity and social reflection. More than four decades after its release, the film continues to resonate with a strength and urgency that inspires our daily work in the defense of human rights and climate justice in Central America.

We want to foster an intergenerational dialogue between those who lived through the context of grave human rights violations and armed conflict, and the new generations, daughters and granddaughters, who today seek to understand their present in order to build a more just future.

I met Rigoberta Menchú during the making of When The Mountains Tremble and established a lasting collaboration and friendship with her. Here we are in 2011, filming the second in the Guatemalan trilogy, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator. Photo: Skylight.

Paco and I will be traveling with the tour presenting the film, public discussions and workshops along with acclaimed Maya K’iche’ journalist, anthropologist and author Irma Alicia Velásquez Nimatuj, who was also the lead protagonist in our film 500 Years. The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation and the investigative news platform Plaza Pública will co-sponsor select events with us.

Read more details of this historic tour in the press release here. And follow us on Instagram or Facebook for updates during the tour.