Chiapas Media Project
Encyclopedia
Chiapas Media Project is a binational partnership that provides media equipment, computers and training to native villages in Southern Mexico to create their own media. The resulting videos offer a unique perspective on the lives and struggles of these villages in Chiapas
. Since 1998, the instructors from CMP have worked with self-governing Zapatista
villages. Native youth in this part of Mexico
often have little formal education and work without reliable electricity. The CMP help these villages produce videos on farming collectives, fair trade organic coffee, self-governing education, traditional healing and the history of their struggle for land.
Now, advanced video makers from the villages run the introductory camera and editing workshops in their regions. Native and non-native instructors from outside of Chiapas provide advanced production, post-production and computer training in the CMP Media Center in San Cristobal de las Casas. The goal is to have all training be carried out by village members in their native languages.
The CMP has distributed over 4,000 native produced videos.
Chiapas
Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...
. Since 1998, the instructors from CMP have worked with self-governing Zapatista
Zapatista Army of National Liberation
The Zapatista Army of National Liberation is a revolutionary leftist group based in Chiapas, the southernmost state of Mexico....
villages. Native youth in this part of Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
often have little formal education and work without reliable electricity. The CMP help these villages produce videos on farming collectives, fair trade organic coffee, self-governing education, traditional healing and the history of their struggle for land.
Now, advanced video makers from the villages run the introductory camera and editing workshops in their regions. Native and non-native instructors from outside of Chiapas provide advanced production, post-production and computer training in the CMP Media Center in San Cristobal de las Casas. The goal is to have all training be carried out by village members in their native languages.
The CMP has distributed over 4,000 native produced videos.
Videos from Chiapas
- Caracoles: New Paths of Resistance
- Water and Autonomy
- We Speak Against Injustice
- The Silence of the Zapatistas
- Xulum'Chon: Weavers in Resistance from the Highlands
- Song of the Earth: Traditional Music from the Highlands of Chiapas