From may to november 2006 Oaxaca was the theater of a new kind of social
uprising . These videos show the everyday life of people during the organized
resistance.
Given the amount of material produced, the show is divided in two parts.
The first part covers events that took place from may to october, the second
from october to november.
Compilation: Isabel Rojas
Image:
Stencil --- Itandehui Franco y TEAK
Design --- Ana Santos
I.
1
Guy Debord in Oaxaca, Steven Brown, (July 2005/antecedente), 5 m
Documentation of a march/parade/demonstration against the restructuration
of the zócalo (central square) in Oaxaca. This episode foreshadows
the events that would take place a year later... some quotations by Guy
Debord (situacionista) appear on the screen to help clarify the events...
2
Movement, Ana Santos, May 2006, 3 m
This is a video describing the daily migrations of people from one place
to another. We are continually on the move (parades, demonstrations). Seemingly
a chronicle of more movements to come...
3
Searching for (fragment), multiple directors / directed collectively, June
2006, 9 m
Images from the 14th june. Forced removal of the teachers' sit-in from the
historical centre of Oaxaca. Images of this video were filmed by several
camaras, it is not signed by anyone in particular, and it was sold in the
zócalo (central square) after the teachers and the people reoccupied
it.
4
Oaxacan offering, Bruno Varela, July 2006, 2 m
Traditional dances with colorful costumes in this celebration of diversity.
5
Okupied signal, Mal de Ojo TV, August 2006, 3 m
Oaxaca TV station (Canal 9) is taken over by a group of women who decided
to give the people back the TV channel which was created for them and ended
up being a means of propaganda for the state government. This short film
is a glimpse of the programmes during SEÑAL OKUPADA.
6
Barricades of calibration, Bruno Varela, August 2006, 1 m
Frozen/Blocked signal. The instability of the broadcast is the consequence
of this ever-strange climate.
7
Puntos B, Héctor Ballesteros, September-November 2006, 3.30 m
Selected work from multimedia project "Puntos B" (interactive
with 39 barricades) which includes: IMAGES of a city in crisis (Oaxaca 2006);
mapped out landscapes of the barricades; simulations of the build-up and
sudden police interventions in a photographic register of the events. Whenever
the barricades sprung up all over Oaxaca City it was evident that an unusual
event was being witnessed: the city became the laboratory of social insurrection:
never in the recent history of the country, not in any city, had a network
of barricades been constructed on such a huge scale.
8
Radio and the insurgency in Oaxaca, Nadja Massun, October, 5 m
A girl sitting next to a radio, casual and remote, obviously not listening,
offers a striking contrast to the tragic events described by the radio announcer.
The video was shot the very day Bradley Will, an independent journalist,
was killed.
II.
9
Persecuted, Ana Santos, October, 30 seconds
A vagrant fleeing...
10
Emissaries of repression, Mal de Ojo TV, October, 10 m
On the 29 OCTOBER 2006 the federal preventive police (PFP) surrounds Oaxaca
city. This material recount the PFP's forced entrance as well as the people's
attempt to resist, first with flowers and then with stones.
11
Sunday walk in Oaxaca town square, Gabriela León, November, 5 m
Prior to recording a call was put out inviting extras to come dressed as
preventive federal police (PFP), sit-in demonstrators, members of civic
groups in their everyday clothes, and a woman dressed as a barricade. A
hairless Mexican dog walked with her. The woman's costume was put together
using scraps of material scavenged from the violently cleared barricades.
Dressed in the evidence of violence, the wound was on show. The march took
place on a Sunday. It began at the protest site(s) and culminated in the
PFP-occupied town square.
12
Bradley: In memoriam, Mal de Ojo TV, November, 8 m
Following journalist Bradley Roland Will’s murder, the people of the
CALICANTO neighborhood paid homage to Bradley demanding justice for him
and for the people of Oaxaca.
13
He already fell (Ya cayó!), Demián Flores, September, loop
(fragment 1 m)
Following a footballer’s movements as he plays infinite keepy-uppies
with the ball, the animation formulates the slogan (and demands) of the
Oaxacan conflict since the failed forceful evacuation of Oaxaca’s
town square. ‘Ya cayó’ is an image of the everlasting
loop of societal struggle.
14
Videograma (1), Bruno Varela, November, 7 m
Scenes and sounds condense into an equation without mystery. Latent activity
for the long wait ahead.
+++
Steven Brown (1952) Chicago / Oaxaca
His relationship with film started as a 15-year-old, with a group of friends,
filming re-makes of well known classics as well as original screenplays.
In the beginning his father Roger Brown helped out as a cameraman. At 16-years-old,
his version of Frankenstein won him a Kodak competition prize. During 1977
in San Francisco he formed the band Tuxedomoon for which film and video,
then as to this day, have held an extremely important position. The same
is true of his “Mexican” band Nine Rain which started during
1993 in Mexico City.
(st5brown@yahoo.com.mx)
Ana Santos (1978) Tututepec / Oaxaca
She has a bachelor’s degree in communications from the Mesoamericana
University, Oaxaca. Completed courses include photography, experimental
cinema, animation, digital video, drawing, art history, lithography, engraving
and contemporary art. She has been awarded funding from the government art
and culture department at both state and at national level (FONCA and FOESCA).
Her short films include: Proceso Lento (1998), Muriendo los años
(1999), Sombras en la calle (2004) – Official Jury Selection at Soft
Geographies Festival 2005, MARE (2006) – screened at the International
Festival of Women in Cinema and Television, Mexico. De la Patada (2006)
- screened at the All Roads Film Project in Los Angeles, California.
(anasabina@hotmail.com)
Bruno Varela (1971) Mexico City / Oaxaca
Audio-visual artist and musician. Graduate in social communication from
the Metropolitan Independent University in Mexico City. Founder of the audiovisual
collective ‘arcanocatorce’. Artistic and managing director of
audio-visual experimental workshop ‘Mirada Biónica’.
His work has been shown at a varirty of forums, screenings and festivals
both in Mexico and internationally. He has been awarded national funding
for his work on a number of occasions including a “Media Artist”
fellowship from the Rockerfeller Foundation through National Video Resources
(2005). He currently programmes EL POCHOTE community cinema in Oaxaca and
is guest curator for the 10th Festival L.A. FREEWAVES new experimental media
art in Los Angeles, California.
(miradabionica2@hotmail.com)
Héctor Ballesteros (1964) Mexico City / Ensenada / Oaxaca
An architect by profession, Héctor has made several shorts and 3-D
animations. He is involved in several editorial projects, principally with
the newspaper Nitro for which he is a cartoonist and writer on the subjects
of architecture, town planning, power, war and the diffused boundaries within
the architecture profession.
(http://puntosb.blogspot.com)
Nadja Massun (1963) Democratic Republic of the Congo / Oaxaca
Economist by profession, she holds a degree in political science. She has
worked in Mexico with various organizations of the United Nations, such
as NGO's which focus on development and social policy. Interested in art
cinema and photography, in 1999 she took up photography more seriously participating
in workshops at the Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photography institute in
oaxaca. recently, a short documentary workshop with bill megalos in march
2006 and in May 2006, A Photography workshop led by Mary Ellen Mark. (nadja.massun@gmail.com)
Mal de Ojo TV (2006) Oaxaca
Mal de Ojo TV is a collective of independent reporters who got together
in order to record and inform (unrestricted like the mass media) about the
events related to the social movement in Oaxaca. It is a collaborative process
between journalists and audio-visual artists in that the final “product”
is always described as ‘directed collectively’ and personal
credits are not included.
Gabriela León (1973) Cuautla / Oaxaca
An artist of various disciplines, her work has been exhibited in both Mexico
and in other countries. She has been granted state funding for her poetry
by FONCA and FOESCA. A couple of her books have been published and she has
also been part of various collectives. Currently lives in Oaxaca. (gabrielaleonv@yahoo.com)
Demián Flores (1971) Juchitán / Oaxaca
A graduate in visual art and design from the the Metroplitan Independent
University School of Fine Arts in Mexico City, his work has been exhibited
both in Mexico and abroad. He has also recieved several acknowledgements
for his work such as the main prizes at the 20th National Festival for Youth
Art in Aguascalientes, Rufino Tamayo’s first art biennial and La Joven
Estampa prize in Havana, Cuba. He currently has a Jackson Pollock Foundation
scholarship.
(floresdemian@yahoo.com)