What you´re about to see is the result of a project for developing photo and video abilities among the inhabitants of Zoh-Laguna and Conhuás, two communities within the Calakmul Biosphere Reserve. The goal is to launch a media-based industry in the area. This project was inspired by the international cultural phenomenon, Nollywood in Nigeria. Now one of the three largest film industries in the world, Nollywood identified a market for movies eager to produce its own stories—stories that are now exported to the rest of the world and generate substantial foreign income.
The Calakmul Biosphere Reserve is the most important forest area in Mexico. It covers 2,792 square miles—and has the highest diversity of mammals in the country. This reserve is the primary refuge for endangered species such as the jaguar, the brocket deer, and the howler monkey. It is also home to the ancient Maya city of Calakmul, which covers nearly 78 square kilometers—28 square miles--roughly the size of the Campeche state capital. In 2002 Calakmul was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.
However, despite this [natural] wealth, the communities that coexist in this area are ranked by SEDESOL (which is Mexico’s Ministry for Social Development), on the lowest rung of food-related poverty. This [poverty] exerts great pressure on primary natural resources, degrading the environment, contributing to the looting of archaeological treasures and undermining the chances for future development. In the words of Mexican scientist Manuel Weber, "the construction of roads has also facilitated hunting by farmers and poachers, as they make possible the purchase and trade of wild meat and ammunition as well as the illegal capture and trafficking of wildlife like parrots and toucans, which has increased."
In terms of archaeological heritage, on February 7, 2006, Arturo Garcia Hernandez published a report in the newspaper La Jornada, with comments by archaeologist Ramon Carrasco. In it Carrasco relates: "The best stelae in Calakmul were in the area where Structure I is located, but they were looted in the1960s and 70s. It was a serious theft. In fact, the most important Mayan stela in the National Anthropology Museum was looted from Calakmul.”
With this project, we intend to kick off an alternative industry in a place that is under constant threat from logging, farming, looting, the decimation of wildlife and the lack of opportunities. An industry that promotes environmental protection, since the environment itself is the natural set where the stories take place. At the same time, this industry provides the community, especially the young, with an alternative source of income through the use of the media as a tool for social, cultural and human development.
To carry out this project, 2 workshops were given. A total of 37 young people in the 2 communities took part. The goal: To produce 6 videos, each one 2 to 5 minutes long, from footage the workshops’ participants had taken.
The work was intense, spontaneous and with more than a few difficulties. In 15 days each community’s young participants wrote a script, story-boarded it, and selected their roles as actors, directors, cameramen and editors. Some videos include special effects and music, which in some cases they selected themselves. For a short time they forgot their shortcomings, they felt universal and undertook the task of creating a story together.
Displaying great tolerance and humor, and astonished by their new tools, these youths managed to work despite the conditions in their community, which include high rates of alcoholism, robbery, lawlessness, poor diet, lack of employment and of cultural infrastructure, irregularities in land ownership, and migration, among other challenges.
The original idea of the project—that is, the creation of new alternatives--has surpassed our expectations. It has immediately linked the townspeople into compact work groups. It has encouraged conversation and discussion to create new cultural references. We believe that skills have been developed which, if well directed, can be an engine for generating an alternative cultural industry…an industry that can create a collective identity at the same time that it bestows a direct economic benefit on the townspeople.
With this project we hope that the people of Calakmul see in the conservation of this heritage an opportunity for development. This challenge is as big as the Reserve itself and as important as the hundreds of stelae discovered at the archaeological site. It is a responsibility that falls largely on the public, which must secure this heritage for future generations.
