“After the weapons” portrays the current life of former EZLN members

GUADALAJARA, JAL. (apro).- Filmmaker Héctor Laso portrays the current life of five indigenous former members of the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) who speak without a balaclava about the twelve days of war in January 1994 in Chiapas, Mexico.

Benito, Elisa, Mario, Felicia and Luis Miguel narrate before the camera their motivations, experiences and wounds from that armed uprising.

All of us, men and women, were motivated and united by the same cause. We were forgotten, because there was no good education,” says Benito.

The 75 minute and two second documentary is titled “After the Weapons”, produced by N+ DOCS, which competes in the official section, for the Mezcal award, of the 39th edition of the Guadalajara International Film Festival (FICG). And Laso, who studied communication sciences at the Intercontinental University of Mexico in addition to being the owner of N+, emphasizes that the film is about the current life of these ex-Zapatistas, but not about the Zapatista movement, but to remember the 30 years of the uprising. most important indigenous armed force in Mexico. And the director explains in an interview:

“It was a very long job. At the end of 2022 we created this documentary division within N+ and with Denise Maerker, who is the executive producer of this project, we talked about what to prepare for the three decades of Zapatismo. So we made many trips, about seven or eight, to Chiapas since the end of 2022. The question was: what happened today with Zapatismo? And we met many people who did not want to talk, everything was very hermetic, not in a bad way, but the EZLN decides when to speak, and at that moment they did not want to speak, and it is totally respectable, but we did not have a clear vision of What had happened to Zapatismo, and we didn’t know how to portray it now.

“When chatting with researcher Fátima Monterrosa we said that perhaps the issue was the ex-Zapatistas. And on one of the last trips to Chiapas, we were already running out of time to produce the feature film, Monterrosa explained to me that she found Major Mario, who told her about Benito, Elisa and they took us to Luis Miguel. And we saw that these five characters, so incredible, could tell us what it was like to fight, what it was like to take up arms, and that was something that had not been told about the movement. We returned to Chiapas, I went with Fátima, and we talked with our characters and we realized that her story was incredible and honest, and we decided to film them.”

–How did you get these characters to talk about their suffering, dreams and achievements?

–When we found the characters, we went with them to Chiapas and spent almost a week in their homes. We met their family, their environment, it was really opening ourselves up so that they could also open their lives. The only thing they asked of us was that we be honest, because they had already had offers before to do things in audiovisual. We were a small team and I think that was the key because we all began to empathize with them and they began to empathize with us.

“We drank coffee every day, we chatted, we explained the shooting plan, in short. They had all the patience to respond. The entire team treated them with respect. So, in a short time we had earned their trust. Towards the end of filming, when we did the last two interviews, that of Benito and Elisa, who are the main characters, they already trusted us, because of this openness that we had during the beginning of filming and I think the result was very good . It was a job for the entire group, to earn the respect and affection of these people so that they could chat intimately.

–They don’t question them, nor judge them, right?

–We never intended to judge the movement, nor its leadership, that is not up to us. That’s up to the Zapatistas and ex-Zapatistas. We didn’t want to talk about the movement, but about how it changed the lives of these characters. We had to understand the motivations of how they transformed from indigenous people to combatants and then how they return to civilian life. All the time we were in that narrative and in the editing that was the guide. It is her life in the movement.

–We talk about women and equality with men, and their identity and culture are also addressed…

–Since we met the characters we wanted to do something with a gender perspective, and how to tell it without falling into the common? It was the difficult part, but the characters themselves told us what to tell. They are not women who only do household chores, nor men who only do men’s chores.

–The film also shows the violence of organized crime in Chiapas, did you think about it from the beginning?

–It happened during filming since we arrived when we had to move from the Altos de Chiapas. We were in San Cristóbal and we had to go towards Ocosingo, towards the entrance to the jungle, and there were checkpoints, and we went through one, we had no other option. We show reality, but the documentary is not only that.

And he emphasizes:

“The documentary ‘After the Weapons’ was filmed for the 30 years of the indigenous armed uprising, what we did not plan was to reflect the issue of organized crime violence in Chiapas. We came across a checkpoint and we portrayed it without exposing the team, without exposing the characters, our intention was not to portray the violence in Chiapas, nor the movement, for the anniversary.

“In Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Major Mario asked for forgiveness in front of the mass grave where there are Zapatista combatants, because perhaps he should have made other decisions in those days of war, but at that moment of combat he lost communications. If he prepared himself in the jungle, he was wrong and he recognizes it.

“That was very strong for me. We were filming from afar and he decided to apologize, and he smoked a cigarette and we stopped filming there. For him it was going back thirty years and accepting that he was wrong.”

From the age of 17, Laso began telling stories in independent audiovisual media, developing journalistic and narrative skills that paved the way for him to make documentaries.

Humanizing conflicts through the documentary is its greatest narrative strength. However, fiction is part of his repertoire as an editor and post-producer. His first documentary for Mexican television: “After Ukraine, chronicles of coverage”, was selected at the Anti-War International Independent Film Festival in 2023.?

He was co-director of the documentary “I cook when I miss you” and has collaborated in the editing of several documentaries, among which the Ariel-winning feature film “El guardian de la memoria” stands out. He has participated in high-level projects that have won international awards and considers that his most recent documentary “After the Weapons” has been his greatest challenge because it is the first time he has directed a filming as a director.