Films 2015 - Guatemala - When the Mountains Tremble

When the Mountains Tremble

Director: Pamela Yates, Newton Thomas Sigel, 1983

Language: English, Spanish
83 minutes – USA

Wikipedia: This 1983 documentary film focuses on the war between the Guatemalan Military and the Mayan Indian population of Guatemala. The film centers on the experiences of future Nobel Prize winner Rigoberta Menchú, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, nine years after the film came out. When The Mountains Tremble won the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film Festival, and the Grand Coral Award/Best North American Documentary at the Havana Film Festival.

N.B. In 2014, filmmaker Pamela Yates said she would be re-editing the film to correct an error. A scene will be corrected to show that the Batzul massacre highlighted in the film was committed NOT by the military, but by leftist rebels disguised as soldiers. Yates has said she will also amend a 2011 follow-up documentary, "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator."