Granito: How to Nail a Dictator
Filmmakers: Pamela Yates, Peter Kinoy, Paco de Onís, 2011
Buy Tickets: Fri Jun 17: 7:00 pm | Sat Jun 18: 1:00 pm
Screenings followed by discussion with filmmakers and film subjects Kate Doyle, Alejandra Garcia and Fredy Peccerelli
HRW Festival synopsis (scroll down for review): Part political thriller, part memoir, Granito: How to Nail a Dictator illustrates how an individual filmmaker’s long-term relationship with a topic and an archive of footage can shape not only the course of a human rights investigation but the interpretation of history.
It is a story of destinies joined together by Guatemala’s past and of how Pamela Yates’ 1982 documentary When the Mountains Tremble (which will also be shown during the festival) emerges as an active player in the present by becoming forensic evidence in a genocide case against a military commander.
In a twist of fate, Yates was allowed to shoot the only known footage of the army as it carried out the mass killings. Twenty-five years later, this footage becomes evidence in an international war-crimes case against the army commander who permitted her to film. (Opens theatrically in Fall 2011 through International Film Circuit. Premieres on PBS’s POV series in 2012.)
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GRANITO: HOW TO NAIL A DICTATOR
2-1/4 stars (out of 4) [(2011)documentary/US-Guatemala-Spain] - (1 hr 40 min)
Directed by Pamela Yates
Featuring:
Kate Doyle ... Forensic Archivist
Alejandra Garcia ... Attorney (also testifies for her missing father)
Fredy Peccerelli ... Forensic Anthropologist (in Guatemala)
Pamela Yates ... Investigator/Sound recordist in 1983 (aka 'AnnaMaria', Guerilla name)
Also (Archive footage only):
General Ríos Montt ... Former Army Leader & Military Dictator (Target of ICC probe)
Pt. 1: A Chronicle Foretold
Pt. 2: Genocide on Trial
Pt. 3: Grains of Sand
Review:
"We'll never remain silent." -Antonio, Guatemalan villager
When filmmaker Pamela Yates completed her documentary "When the Mountains Tremble" in 1983, she highlighted how U.S. aid to Guatemala was being used to fund a Hidden War within the country.
Military and police "death squads" were being used to wipe out entire indigenous villages of innocent, relatively apolitical, Mayan families (these Mayan lands were later confiscated by the military-run govt. and used for Public Works projects). The casualties numbered more than 70,000 among the Indian population.
The USA aid eventually stopped, but the outtakes and unused 16mm film footage shot by Yates' 1983 film could now be used to help the International Criminal Court (the ICC in Madrid, Spain) compile Human Rights violations against the former Guatemalan government and military leaders for the genocide they attempted in the early 80's (recorded in "When the Mountains Tremble"). The new investigation mainly targeted General Ríos Montt, one of surviving key leaders of the period (and still in politics).
These actions are revealed in "Granito" in exhaustive detail. Shots of Yates searching through reels of unused footage, shots of Yates on the Moviola editor viewing the footage, and voiceover narration spoken by Yates. The first third of this follow-up documentary over-explains every step in the process.
This resulting oversimplification feels like a Genocide Research 101 power point presentation for young teenagers. Good for newbies to the topic, but repetitive for anyone with prior contact to the "bad things" (govt. sponsored murders & kidnappings) that have been going on in South America for the past 50 years (especially between Native South Americans and their immigtant counterparts).
This style of docu-making (staged depositions, heavy voiceover, etc.) may be intentional as the film has been picked up by PBS for a 2012 broadcast (on POV, www.pov.org). However, it kills any suspense developed by the course of events. The synopsis advertises GRANITO as a "thriller," but "thrill-less" would be more accurate.
Luckily, "Part 2: Genocide on Trial" shifts the action to the ICC's preparation and prosecution of the surviving leaders of the Guatemalan/Mayan genocide, along with the discovery of a secret file detailing "Operation Sofia" (the plan for one phase of the complete destruction of the indigenous population).
As the film's chronology comes up to the present, the storyline finally pays off (in part) with "Part 3: Grains of Sand." Due in great part toony of Alejandra Garcia whose father was "disappeared" by the Civil Patrols. Her story continues as she then attained a law degree and made her father's case a personal crusade (one wonders how many of these children of the disappeared also went into the law profession to right the wrongs of the past).
Anyone with some basic familiarity of South American dictatorships will find the first half of "Granito" an unneeded historical review, but the second half is worth looking over for the testimony of the Mayan children (now grown up) who have never forgotten the images of their parents executions at the hands of the government.
They are the grains of sand that will stir your heart the deepest.
"I suffered and I can't forget." -Mayan villager
Producer: Paco de Onis
Editor: Peter Kinoy
Original Music by Roger C. Miller
2009 Human Rights Report - Guatemala
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/wha/136114.htm
Not in the film, but should've been (from counterpunch.org):
Reagan paid a visit to Guatemala City in 1982 where he hailed Ríos Montt "a man of great personal integrity and commitment" and assured the troubled nation that the man who came to power in a military coup was "totally dedicated to democracy."
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