The acclaimed filmmaker Nettie Wild discusses her film A Place Called Chiapas, with Joseph Planta, which gets a screening at DOXA, the Documentary Film Festival, Saturday, 04 May 2019 some twenty-one years since its release; they also discuss the making of the movie between 1996-1997, the politics of free trade, copyright, and more.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

Nettie Wild joins me now. Her film A Place Called Chiapas will be screened at DOXA, the Documentary Film Festival, Saturday, 04 May 2019. It’ll be at the Vancity Theatre at 4.15pm, and after the film there we be a discussion about the movie, twenty-one years after its release, and twenty-five years after the Zapatista National Liberation Army’s rebellion in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico. Ms. Wild and her Canadian/Mexican crew were in the region for about nine months, capturing what life was life as the mysterious Subcomandante Marcos led an indigenous guerilla force seizing land from landowners and the Mexican government. It was considered the world’s first postmodern revolution in 1994, using the internet. It’s sometimes tense, but the film is eventually revealing, not only of the oppressed and the oppressors, and their odd relationship with reality. The film got good notices on its release. Variety noted the movie’s success in illuminating the murky politics of the situation. We’ll also reflect on what precipitated all of this, NAFTA, and where we see this hemisphere today with a new version of the trade agreement. The film won the 1999 Genie Award for Best Documentary Feature. Nettie Wild is the distinguished filmmaker of movies such as A Rustling of Leaves, Blockade, Fix: The Story of an Addicted City, and KONELINE: our land beautiful. She’s won many awards for her work and much deserved recognition for her career. Visit www.canadawildproductions.com for more information. And visit www.doxafestival.ca for tickets to the screening. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Nettie Wild; Ms. Wild, good morning.

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