Meta Mayan (1981)

Filmed in the Guatemalan Highlands during a 1980 journey, Edín Vélez’s experimental video essay offers a lyrical portrait of Mayan life. Avoiding conventional narration or ethnographic analysis, the film observes gestures, landscapes, and daily rituals through slow motion and expressive camera techniques, while American news broadcasts evoke the political conflict surrounding the community, creating a meditation on cultural resilience in a changing world.

Production

The TV Lab at WNET/13