The government used specific techniques to target the role of the elderly in the Q'eqchi' communities in order to commit a cruel ethnocide during the 80s and 90s. During the last years of the state violence, I started a project to reconnect youth and elderly in order to strengthen the local agricultural practices and rituals. The ancestral knowledge could tackle serious problems like leafcutter ants that can destroy a complete field of corn in just one night. I started from the stories that elderly tell about the ancestors. The ancestors are alive, hiding in the forest. They are called the Heart People. They wear white tunics, have long hair, eat huge tortillas and use the blowing pipe to hunt. The resemblance with two groups of recently contacted Mayan people in the nearby Lacandon forest was striking.   First, a committee of elderly was selected to go visit them and the event was filmed. The local communities were confronted with this movie. Then we decided to invite a group of Lacandon to come and visit the local Q'eqchi' communities. This visit was also documented on film.

 

Screening the movie caused people to take out a wall of the community house to allow the gathering crowd to watch.

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