Style

This is the story of what the uprising and its aftermath have meant to the lives of the indigenous women as told by some of them. Although the questions and the implied presence of the director are part of the narrative, there is no running voice-over giving an explanation or the director’s point of view. 



To explain the background to the uprising, After Zapatismo uses stop-motion animation with dolls of the Zapatistas that artisan women make and sell to the tourists. This “dramatisation” of events is interspersed with archive footage and is the only part narrated by the director. In a light and quick way, the historical background is explained while also reflecting Mexico’s craft tradition and their great sense of humour in the face of adversity and cynical governments. 


The film’s protagonists and contributors

The Cruz Jiménez/Aguilar family: awakened by the Zapatista women they started their own women’s rights group. Strong-minded Juanita is the leader; she started by working on equality on her own family, most of whom are involved in the group, including two of her brothers. She’s also the most outspoken about the Zapatistas’ own flaws. Martha, her sister-in-law, is one of the warmest subjects and, together with her husband Esteban and children, they have gone through the biggest changes since the uprising. Other members of Juanita’s family and group also feature, like her long suffering sister María; free and single friend Mary and her father, independent farmer Don Alejandro. 



A Zapatista female member who trained as an insurgent since childhood and still collaborates; she’s the most unconditional supporter of all the characters. 



Zapatista ex-members: A woman who trained from adolescence with the Zapatistas but had to leave before the uprising due to a pregnancy. She helps in what she can but also sees the flaws from the outside and seeks further education and development for herself and her daughter. Another ex-rebel who was saved by the Zapatistas from a forced marriage and who found a new life with them. 



The Focus

There have been several accounts of Zapatismo, usually focused on the uprising and the fight for the land and rights of the indigenous people as a whole. A central character to these accounts has been Sub-commander Marcos, the organization’s spokesperson, who has also become an international figurehead and a new Che Guevara for idealist western youths. 


This film doesn’t feature him as a subject or as central to the angle from which we’re telling the story. Our focus are the women, to give them their due and to avoid them being written out of history as it has sometimes happened when important events have taken place all over the world. 


The featured subjects shape an “issue documentary” into personal stories, aiming to grasp the interest of the general international viewer and to speak about the things in politics and war that matter: their effect in the people. 



For the same reason, there are no views or opinions by experts or anthropologists. The views and points are the protagonists’ own; they are commented and contrasted through the editing, which forms the narrative and introduces new points to the development of the argument along the duration of the film.