We recently heard from Luis Argueta, writer and director of El Silencio de Neto, the sad news of the death of Justo Chang (photo-left: SigloXXI), Argueta's co-writer on El Silencio de Neto, one of Guatemala's most successful films. He had a long and distinguished career supporting Guatemalan cinema, cut short by the onset of Alzheimers from around the time that El Silencio de Neto was finished in 1994.

I was lucky enough to meet Chang. His wife Veronique Simar, supported a street educational project I worked on, bringing Spanish artists to Guatemala to run workshops and perform across Guatemala City.

Luis Argueta continues to produce films on Guatemala documenting the lives of Guatemalans often ignored by the mainstream media. Below is a clip from his documentary "And There I Am" Documenting Silent Voices, which follows the stories of Guatemalans who emigrate to the U.S. You can see another clip here and see the trailer from "Cuando Nueva York Se Vistio de Guatemala" which follows the mass for El Senor de Esquipulas taken by Cardenal Rodolfo Quesada Toruna at St Patrick's Cathedral in New York.

This is a clip from the documentary looking at the U.S. intervention in Guatemala and the coup in 1954 against Jacobo Arbenz. The clip has been posted on You Tube by OtrasVoces. The clip is mainly in Spanish. There is more information on Howard Hunt who appears in this clip, talking about Guatemala in an interview he did with CNN, 'Cold War: Backyard'.

'Entremosle a Guate' (roughly translated, 'Let's Get Behind Guatemala') is a fresh and interesting documentary series on the issues facing Guatemalans today. It's been put together by Guatemalan double act, Harris Whitbeck and Ana Carlos. Their idea has been to put together video portraits of mainly young people who are getting behind their country and helping to bring about a different Guatemala.

The series, which we flagged up a few months ago and has become one of the most popular posts on this blog, has been far reaching in its scope of issues and refreshingly different in its approach to presenting the issues affecting Guatemala today. In their own words, from the website:


The idea is to produce 12 monthly episodes across the year, five of which they've currently broadcast which you can now watch online through an inspired decision to distribute it freely via the internet- unlike the vast majority of unenlightened Guatemalan (and Mexican!) television execs. They have put them live on their site a few days ago.

Also interesting to note is the source of private finance for the project from many of the heavyweights in Guatemala's business and industrial sector. Such a professional edit and quantity of backdrops has obviously needed relatively generous budget. You'd hope, but not too niavely that those financing the series haven't sought to compromise the makers editorial independence. But I can't quite see this programme covering DR-CAFTA through the eyes of a fair trade activist. Whether this ultimately takes anything away from the issues they do cover, I guess is in the eye of the beholder.

Ok, so what are the issues they've covered so far? I'd paraphrase them in the following way in English- but I'd recommend you check out each episode's full synopsis in Spanish on their site:

Episode1: Developing responsable tourism in Guatemala
Episode 2: Emergency services: fire and rescue services, and prison services
Episode 3: Photography with a social conscience; and public minded architecture
Episode 4: Migration and conserving Guatemalans' culture
Episode 5: Living with HIV in Guatemala; developing new and dignified housing
Episode 6: New cultural expression by young people in Guatemala
Episode 7: Women in Guatemala's criminal justice system
Episode 8: Drug addiction - treatment and support
Episode 9: Archaeology, environmental protection and community development
Episode 10: The role of the surgeon and community midwife
Episode 11: Making coffee in Guatemala - in the city and in Chajul
Episode 12: Managing forestation in Guatemala
Episode 13: Therapeutic pets in San Juan de Dios; adoption uniting families

I really look forward to seeing the coming seven further episodes. The series promises to make up a valuable resource that will prove to be inspiring and insightful about the Guatemala of today and the young people that are building it for tomorrow.

Whilst we've been talking about apologists for military violence recently on this blog, the following clip is a timely reminder of what Guatemala has gone through- and the role external government's have played in it. This example is (part of) a documentary on the CIA 's involvement in Guatemala.

It's in Spanish, and it's worth pointing out that the images are pretty explicit. This clip was posted in You Tube by Joaquinsan.

Phillip Agee, a former CIA operative who left the agency in 1967 after becoming disillusioned by the CIA’s support for the status quo in the region is actually featured in this clip. He has just done an interview with Red Pepper about CIA intervention in Latin America at the moment, in particular Venezuela.