Claudio Zulian’s Sin miedo: Film as Action and Memory

Abstract

This study analyzes the collective pursuit of justice and memory in Sin miedo [Without Fear] (Zulian, 2017). The documentary is a grassroots implementation of a 2012 Inter-American Court of Human Rights judgement. The relatives of desaparecidos/as during the Guatemalan military dictatorship were the catalysts for the film’s creation. This study focuses on a filmic analysis of techniques, research on the history of the internal armed conflict in Guatemala, and relevant information on the family members’ hunt for justice, such as the detailing and connection of common crimes to politically motivated ones. A continued climate of impunity in Guatemala is challenged by the protagonists as they utilize the collection of testimonials and evidence to break cultures of enforced silence and fear. Zulian’s documentary claims new ground as it provides the relatives with the means to fulfill the court mandate and to actively construct and position their forcibly disappeared family members’ stories and their own within Guatemala’s historical narrative. Through their dynamic involvement in Sin miedo (2017), the relatives participate in the conversion of film into action and memory. These findings support grassroots movements in (re)shaping dominant narratives through media like film; they are also a reminder of the power of silenced voices and of the varied forms that claims for justice can take, from court mandates to documentaries.

RESUMEN

Este estudio analiza la búsqueda colectiva de la justicia y la memoria en Sin miedo (Zulian, 2017). El documental pone en práctica, por iniciativa social, una sentencia de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos del año 2012. Los familiares de personas desaparecidas forzadamente durante la dictadura militar guatemalteca fueron los impulsores de esta creación fílmica. El estudio se centra en un análisis de técnicas, investigaciones sobre la historia del conflicto interno armado en Guatemala e información pertinente sobre la búsqueda de justicia por parte de los familiares, como especificar y conectar los crímenes comunes a los que son motivados políticamente. Los protagonistas desafían un clima de impunidad persistente en Guatemala al utilizar una colección de testimonios y evidencias para romper la cultura del silencio forzado y del miedo. El documental de Zulian explora nuevo territorio al proveer a las familias con los medios para cumplir con la orden judicial y también para construir activamente y posicionar sus propias historias y las de sus familiares desaparecidos dentro de la narrativa histórica guatemalteca. A través de su implicación activa en la creación del documental, los familiares participan en la transformación del film en acción y memoria. Estos hallazgos apoyan los movimientos sociales de base en (re)modelar narrativas hegemónicas por medios como el film; también nos recuerdan el poder de las voces silenciadas y las formas variadas que las peticiones de justicia pueden tomar, desde órdenes judiciales hasta documentales.

Keywords:

• Memory
• documentary
• Guatemala
• human rights
• desaparecidos

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• memoria
• documental
• Guatemala
• derechos humanos
• desaparecidos

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For more information on the connection between amnesty, amnesia, and memory, see Bergero et al (1997).

2 In “Healing Past Violence: Traumatic Assumptions and Therapeutic Interventions in War and Reconciliation” (Moon 2009), Claire Moon discusses postconflict national reconciliation processes and a therapeutic model. Restorative justice, leading to amnesty (often associated with the terms olvido and impunidad), is associated with South Africa while retributive justice, leading to punishment or sentencing (often associated with the terms memoria and justicia), is associated with Argentina.

3 In “The Right to the Truth as an Autonomous Right Under the Inter-American Human Rights System,” Ferrer Mac-Gregor, an Inter-American Court of Human Rights Judge and Law Professor, argues for the Court to reconsider its criteria in determining the right to the truth, which he claims is “‘subsumed’ in the victims’ and their families’ right to have the competent State bodies elucidate the violations and corresponding responsibilities” (2016, 121–39). The right should be autonomous.

4 For more information on the memory market, see Bilbija and Payne (2011). When the Mountains Tremble and 500 Years focus on indigenous peoples’ struggles in Guatemala during and after the internal armed conflict (the trial of Efraín Ríos Montt is covered in 500 Years) and provide historical context.

5 “Emblematic memory selects which memories will be included in a society’s collective memory and what significance these memories will have” (Hatcher 2018, 7).

6 Some of the relatives located the names of their forcibly disappeared family members in the Diario. In the documentary, they discuss their mixed feelings. The Diario simultaneously provides closure for certain relatives, by confirming the enforced disappearance of their loved ones, although this is also terrible news to receive, and provokes feelings of uncertainty because they did not know if they would also find a body. In one case, a forcibly disappeared loved one’s body was located in a mass grave, and the family decided to display the body at an exhibit (to share their loved one’s history instead of burying it). As mentioned, the Diario was also used by the relatives in court cases as evidence of state repression and involvement in enforced disappearances. Their first attempt to take legal action within the country was unsuccessful. The narrator states that thanks to the Diario Militar, they were able to take legal action, but the military denied everything. According to the documentary, judges were still afraid, and there was no sentence (Sin miedo 2017, 00:42:50–00:43:45; 01:00:05–01:03:57). This claim and case require further research. The case brought before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, however, was successful and led the relatives to create Sin miedo.

7 Hatcher states: “I explore the discursive scaffoldings that exist and that determine how contemporary Guatemalans and Salvadorans talk about memory and forgetting and how they frame the usefulness of one or the other in achieving the broad goals of transitional processes, i.e., reconciliation and non-repetition. The idea of discursive scaffolding draws on William Roseberry [1994 and 1996] and his discussion of (un)common discursive frameworks. Roseberry bases his argument on Antonio Gramsci’s understanding of hegemony as struggle, and more specifically as the struggle between elites—most often the state—and subalterns in the political process.” (2018, 4–5); “importantly, and counter to Roseberry, it is non-state actors who have to a large extent determined how the past is framed in Guatemala” (Hatcher 2018, 4–5); “Tangled up with Guatemala and El Salvador’s common and uncommon discursive frameworks are what Steve Stern [2004] called emblematic memory. […] Importantly, though it is an invention, this memory scaffolding cannot simply be erected and shaped on a whim but must speak to and reflect lived experiences and events. These lived experiences and events most often are instances of societal rupture or trauma, moments that prove to be turning points in history and are understood as foundational” (Hatcher 2018, 7).

8 The concept of a hole or a tear (the result of enforced disappearances) in the fabric of the family and of society recurs constantly in post-dictatorship, memory market works.

9 Caruth (1996) discusses the traumatic as a wound and analyzes its belated nature.

10 Footage of a demonstration and the narrator’s claim that Guatemalans are no longer afraid represent another victory for the relatives. Signs held by demonstrators claim, “Sí hubo genocidio” (Sin miedo 2017, 01:10:33). A narrator informs the viewer that in 2015, after six months of demonstrations, the ex-general Otto Perez Molina was forced to resign due to a case of corruption: “Guatemala is no longer the same. Many know that poverty and oppression are not a destiny” (Sin miedo 2017, 01:10:40–01:11:00). The final scene is also one of triumph. The relatives gather to celebrate and remember. One relative affirms that their loved ones are still present, and by trying to take them away or forcefully disappear them, they have become immortal: “Without Fear, that’s the name of our documentary. Until we find them” (Sin miedo 2017, 01:13:45–01:14:06). As the documentary closes, the relatives fly kites in the sky, and as they flow in the wind, it is possible to imagine the relatives and their loved ones free like the kites, free from fear and from earthly restraints.

11 Zulian also notes: “It was during this process when I had the first meeting with the group. Right away there was agreement on the contents and methods” (Pragda n.d.). The relatives approached him.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cheri Robinson

Cheri Robinson’s research is transnational and interdisciplinary in nature with primary foci in cultural studies, film, and literature in twentieth and twenty-first century Latin America. Much of her work addresses pressing human rights issues and representational strategies that utilize child protagonists and/or a trauma-centered or memory-centered approach to revisit or report on periods of extreme violence. She received her PhD in Hispanic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Los Angeles, and currently teaches as a Lecturer of Spanish at Binghamton University.