Irish produced documentary is screened at The Bay Theater

By Holly Spaulding
Sun staff writer

One characteristic of living up north, as we say in these parts, is that invariably a compromise must be made in order to be here. We give up many things, and usually it is worth it. Certainly the diversity and prevalence of local culture is impressive. But one thing that is often lacking is a connection to the unusual, offbeat, often more worldly programs and events that make bigger cities so attractive. Of course there are exceptions to this rule.
On Sunday June 11th, many county residents had the opportunity to be present for the U.S. premier of a short film by up-and-coming Irish documentarian Muireann de Barra (26). I met de Barra in Dublin in 1998 while studying there, and we soon discovered that we had many interests in common, including a concern for the Zapatistas of Chiapas. Though I have returned to Michigan for now, we have maintained contact, and last summer I accompanied her on a trip to Mexico which incorporated some filming for what would become her latest project, a documentary entitled “Muralistas.”
Only days after completing the editing for the film, de Barra screened it at the first ever Irish-Latin American Film Festival in her home city of Dublin. Two weeks later she was on a spontaneous flight to the United States- her first ever- and I was to be her hostess in Northern Michigan. When I learned of her plans I mentioned them to several people, and was encouraged to see that it would be possible to organize a screening of ”Muralistas” in this area. With the cooperation of Bob Bahle of the Bay Theater in Suttons Bay, an event was scheduled with just a week to do the promotion.
Many posters, postcards, a Record Eagle article, and an interview with Bob Allen of Interlochen Public Radio later, de Barraís film was screened before two large and enthusiastic audiences in Suttons Bay. It was apparent that many of those who were there that day were impressed with the film itself as well as with the opportunity to see something of this sort in Leelanau County. Many had traveled long distances to spend their afternoon in the theater, and in some cases, to speak with the director after the show. ”Muralistas” deals with two strands in a story which is not unfamiliar to anyone who knows the history of the Americas as it relates to the affects of colonialism on indigenous people. In this case de Barra looks at the Mayan Indians in the southeastern state of Chiapas, Mexico, and in particular she focuses on the Zapatistas, members of an armed revolutionary organization that since their high profile uprising in 1994, have been calling for an end to Mexican human rights abuses against them, as well as the on-going theft and abuse of their land and resources by the government and multi-national corporations.
The other strand of the film focuses on women from a disadvantaged community in Dublin, Ireland. All recovering drug users, these women are participants in a program called SAOL (an Irish word meaning “life”) which facilitates the process of recovery by helping the women to understand their addiction, and by offering a skills-building curriculum in order to prepare them for an independent life after drugs.
The idea for the film was born when de Barra was approached by SAOL to make a simple home video of the group while they reproduced a large mural entitled “Vida Y Suenosí” (Life and Dreams), which was originally painted by members of several Zapatista communities in Chiapas as part of what was to be the inauguration of a new autonomous municipality, called Taniperla. Because this mural symbolized a way of life that the Mexican government views as a threat in that it promotes non-capitalistic values, self-determination, and ties to the traditional Mayan culture, the mural was forcefully destroyed during a military incursion and subsequent occupation of the community shortly after the painting was completed.
Because de Barra is trained in professional quality video production, she decided that with SAOLís permission, she would write a grant proposal for funding that would allow her to do a quality documentary of the solidarity effort that they were participating in. Soon after that, filming began. As the SAOL women worked on their mural, de Barra began making plans to go back to Chiapas, where she had worked on a previous production for Irish National television. Her hope was to capture some of the images that are so beautifully and poignantly depicted in “Vida Y Suenosí”. And this she did, including among those images others which show the Zapatista women as they push back the army with only their hands for defense and their babies still tied to their backs. She also incorporated archival footage of military tanks as they rolled into Taniperla, her own interviews with individuals who were part of the first mural, and a counselor that specializes in trauma cases, for that has become more prevalent over the course of this on-going, low intensity war.
The end product is a 26 minute piece which shows the SAOL women as enthusiastic supporters of the Zapatista’s demands for justice and equality for all. It also shows how these Irish women, who themselves face many of the same difficulties: barriers to education, abuse within or outside of the home, poverty, and a lack of voice in the matters that concern them, put their own struggles into perspective vis a vis the suffering of others. Though they are still in situations that might in many cases be responsible for their involvement in drugs, the SAOL women speak in the documentary of “standing tall and dreaming big”, of how much they enjoyed painting the mural, and of what an accomplishment it was to finish this project so that de Barra could take photographs of the mural to Mexico to show their “sisters” there.
Following the second screening of her film at the Bay Theater, Muireann de Barra also answered questions from the audience and engaged in a discussion of the issues that she took into account during the making of “Muralistas”, as well as those she faces as she attempts to find a way to distribute her first independent production. With events such as this one generating such support, there is hope that this sort of programming will continue to find interest in the area.
“Muralistas” will also be shown on TV-2, Community Access Television, on a
date TBA.