Guanajuato Film Commission (CFGTO) Helps Bring Indigenous Legacy to Life On Screen
CORTAZAR, GUANAJUATO, MEXICO: When a group of Digital Arts students from the University of Guanajuato delved into the history of Teoculhuacan Chicomoztoc, the result was a feature film, “Chicomoztoc, La Santa Cruz del Culiacán”.
Better known as the Culiacán Hill, located in the municipality of Cortazar in Guanajuato state, the feature film documents the festivities of the Holy Cross and the syncretism of the original cultures that started this festival. The Otomies, Pames, Zacatecos, Chichimecas and Maya Quiches, among others, danced to the rain god Tláloc here, to ask for a good storm, just as believers now dance to the tree of the Holy Cross of Culiacán, dancing the same for a good storm as well as for different orders and requests.
Filming began in 2015 and concluded in 2020. The pandemic prevented the annual festival that traditionally took place at the top of the mountain each year, from April 30 to May 1.
The university production team was led by Nitzia Julieta Ruiz Zapatero (idea, direction, and co-production), and Estefany Sánchez Castro (production). The anthropological data provided by the archaeologist and historian Julio Celis Polanco was very important to the project.
Chicomoztoc, La Santa Cruz del Culiacán received the support of the Guanajuato Film Commission (CFGTO). The CFGTO was later joined by the Chicomoztoc project for support of the film’s sound and image post-production stage and animation render for its premiere.
During the most recent Guanajuato Film Festival - GIFF, the director Nitzia Ruiz, participated in the online panel entitled Guanajuato a place of cinema: "Representation of the Indigenous legacy through our screens".
The CFGTO support for the projects is with information, advice, links with authorities and institutions, representation permits and exhibition of public spaces, among others. In addition, we provide information, processes, and mechanisms so that your filming, shooting, scouting, surveying, and shooting are simplified. And inform about the economic support program for cinematographic and audiovisual projects.
