28 Jan Press Release: “When the Mountains Tremble” 40th Anniversary Guatemala Tour
“When The Mountains Tremble,” Enduring Classic Documentary About War, Social Upheaval, and Indigenous Organizing, to Tour Guatemala Marking Film’s 40th Anniversary
The Tour–Organized by Fundación Ixcanul and Skylight–Will Visit 5 Cities
(New York, NY, January 28, 2025) – When The Mountains Tremble, the enduring classic documentary by award-winning director Pamela Yates about war, social upheaval, and Indigenous organizing in Guatemala, will tour the country from January 31- February 5, 2025. Acclaimed Maya K’iche’ journalist, author and anthropologist, Irma Alicia Velázquez Nimatuj, plans to accompany director Pamela Yates and producer Paco de Onís in select cities. The tour is generously supported by Fundación Ixcanul and is presented by Skylight with Fundación Ixcanul and the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation and the investigative news platform Plaza Pública are co-presenting select screenings and events.
When the Mountains Tremble is the story of how the Guatemalan people came to take up arms attempting to overthrow a brutal military dictatorship and regain their democracy. Maya K’iche’ leader Rigoberta Menchú was there; she tells the story. This enduring classic of war and social revolution helped put Rigoberta Menchú on the world stage–ten years later she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. The film galvanized the Central American solidarity movement in the US and Europe and its footage became key forensic evidence to help convict General Ríos Montt of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2013.
The epic story lays bare the political spectrum of Guatemala at war in the 1980s: protagonists from civil society, the Church, the guerrilla forces and the Army weave a cohesive story that, despite the history of oppression it depicts, presents the resistance of the rural Indigenous communities united with the urban workers and university students fighting to create a democratic Guatemala.
Innovative in form as well as content, the film features Rigoberta Menchú directly addressing the camera, reenactments based on declassified C.I.A. documents, and action sequences shot during wartime at great risk to the filmmakers. Latin music sensation Rubén Blades created and performed the soundtrack. The overall effect of the film clearly conveys the universal political yearnings for freedom.
When the Mountains Tremble was released theatrically across the U.S. in 40 cities and in 30 foreign countries. It was awarded the 1984 Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, was broadcast on PBS, and is now available to be streamed globally through New Day Films. Censored for two decades in Guatemala, it had its first public showing there in 2003. It has been embraced by the next generation of committed human rights and environmental defenders in Guatemala and across the world.
When the Mountains Tremble is the first of Pamela Yates’ trilogy of films about Guatemala, known as The Resistance Saga. The films Granito: How to Nail a Dictator (2011) and 500 Years (2017) round out the trilogy.
Details of the Guatemala Tour, January 31-February 5, 2025
January 31 – Film Presentation to the general public and the students of the Pavarotti Center in San Lucas Tolimán, Sololá, in collaboration with the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation
February 1 – Film Presentation addressed to the general public in Guatemala City, in collaboration with the Cultural Center of Spain in Guatemala
February 3 – Workshop and film presentation at the Museo Comunitario de la Memoria Histórica in Rabinal, Baja Verapaz, in collaboration with ADIVIMA
February 4 – Location to be announced
February 5 – Film presentation and cinema workshop, “The Impact of Documentary Film for Social Change” at the Aula Magna of the Universidad Rafael Landívar in the city of Quetzaltenango, in collaboration with investigative news platform Plaza Pública.
About When The Mountains Tremble
Director and Sound Recordist: Pamela Yates
Director and Cinematographer: Newton Thomas Sigel
Producer and Editor: Peter Kinoy
Music composer and performer: Rubén Blades
Year of release: 1983Country:Guatemala/USA
Distributor: Skylight
Genre: Documentary
Length: 83 min.
Original language: English and Spanish, Maya K’iche’ and Maya Ixil
Subtitles: English and Spanish
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About Skylight
Founded by Pamela Yates, Peter Kinoy and Newton Thomas Sigel in 1979, Skylight is a not-for-profit media organization that for over 40 years has combined cinematic arts with the quest for justice to inspire the defense of human rights. Skylight’s films and programs strengthen social justice movements and catalyze collaborative networks of artists and activists. Their films have been awarded an Oscar, an Emmy, an Overseas Press Club Awards, a Sundance Film Festival Jury Prize, and a Guggenheim Fellowship and have been broadcast and streamed throughout the world.
About Fundación Ixcanul
Founded in 2018 by Guatemalan director, Jayro Bustamante (“Ixcanul”, “La Llorona”, “Rita”) with the conviction that film could be a powerful tool to make social issues visible and promote change, Fundación Ixcanul develops programs and projects that seek to democratize access to film, train new generations of filmmakers and encourage dialogue around critical issues for Guatemalan society. With each project, they reaffirm their commitment to use film as a tool for change and for the defense of human rights.
