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Junax, thread by thread

2020 || 88 min, 64 min & 52 min || Documentary Feature

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Original title: Junax, hilo por hilo

Directed by Ambra Reijnen & Rubi Tobias
Produced by Cyril Reijnen

Sound recordings: Nicolas Brighi, Adrian Simg
Sound Design: Adrian Simg, Andrés Monerris Gallart
Logistics manager & textile consultant: Silvia Coca

Sales agent: Raffaella Pontarelli of Amarena Film

Spanish and Mayan Tzeltal spoken

© Promono Multisensory Productions

Download Electronic Press Kit

Clica aquí para el Electronic Press Kit en Español

Synopsis

Victoria is a young woman from a Mayan community in Chiapas, Mexico’s poorest state.

As an indigenous woman, she faces different challenges in order to survive in a disadvantaged community where gender biased beliefs are commonplace. Nonetheless, Victoria challenges all stereotypes by leading an all-female collective around the ancient tradition of back-strap weaving, enabling women to earn a living. Meanwhile, Arabelle, Victoria’s orphan niece, is growing up. How will Arabelle’s story be embroidered upon the tale Victoria is weaving for her?

A story of women’s rights, indigenous emancipation and a continuous battle to escape poverty.

Festivals & Screenings

2020, September – Official Selection “Resilience” | MICGénero, International Film Festival with Gender Perspective, Mexico

2020, October – Main Competition | International Film Festival Etnofilm Čadca, Slovakia*

2020, November – Official Selection “Categoria Rural Largometrajes” | Arica Nativa, Festival de Peliculas Nativas, Chile

2020, November – Foro Latinoamericano de Cine Etnográfico | VI Congreso Antropológico Latino-Americano, Uruguay

2020, December – “Ciclo de Cine-Debate con Perspectiva de Género” Puebla, México

2021, March – Foro de Cine Etnográfico | VI Congreso  Mexicano de Antropología Social y Etnología Latino-Americano, México

2021, May – Main Program | Moscow International Festival of Visual Anthropology “Mediating Camera”, Russia

2021, August –  National selection “Programa Chimal” – Opening Film | DOQUMENTA International Film Festival Querétaro, Mexico

2021, December – Screening Exposition des Arts à la Maison des Suds | Laboratoire UMR 5319 Passages at Université de Bordeaux Montaigne, France

2022, September – Labour.doc | Labour Film Festival Milano, Italy

2023, June – Main Program | Human Rights Film Festival [Women’s Edition] The Hague, The Netherlands.

*Due to Covid-19, the main competition of IFF Etnofilm Čadca has been viewed privately by the jury without public screenings.

Expositions

2021, December – Exposition at EXARMAS | Laboratoire UMR 5319 Passages at Université de Bordeaux Montaigne, France

Markets

Agora Doc Market 2020 | Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival

Media Library 2020 | Visions du Réel, International Film Festival Nyon

KFF Market 2020 | Krakow Film Festival

MEDIMED 2020 | The Euromed Docs Market

European Film Market 2021 | Berlinale

Directors’ Statement

The project starts when we, Ambra and Rubi, met in San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, in 2016. At the time, Ambra was working in a human rights center in defense of the indigenous peoples and Rubi was investigating social, environmental and gender inequalities as an anthropologist in San Juan Cancuc, a Tzeltal community belonging to the Maya ethnicity. There, she analyzed how women were using cultural practices to adapt to climate change, and there she discovered the smiling faces of women who were organizing themselves to escape the poverty in which they were living with their families. The first approaches were difficult: the language, the marginalization, the situation of extreme poverty and the structural gender-based violence that are felt in the streets of the community, made the intervention complicated, but Doña Juana and Victoria opened the doors of their community and those of their house. There, Rubi discovered their art. She was hugely impressed and became passionate about these women and their work. Motivated by a commitment of reciprocity, Rubi shared this passion with Ambra. We offered Victoria to make a video showing the process of the back-strap loom to thank her for her hospitality.

We started making several shots, interviewed women, visited their homes, as we became more and more aware of the reality of young Mayan women like Victoria living in the third poorest municipality in Mexico where 97% of the population lives in poverty, where more than half of the women are illiterate and do not speak Spanish and only 9% participates in an economic activity. Victoria’s story and her ability to steer an all-female weaver’s collective in these circumstances deserve much more than just a promotional video. Together with Victoria, we decided her story was worth a documentary. The investigative work and the communication that we maintained at a distance with Victoria allowed us to return to the community in September 2018.

“Junax, thread by thread” is a story of female legacy and empowerment. It shows how standing together can make quite the difference, and the resilience of whom suffers double institutional discrimination. Day by day and thread by thread, the women are working hard within a context of inequality and social injustice to create opportunities for the future generation.

The ultimate basis of the documentary “Junax”, meaning “Together” in Tzeltal language, is the union of three women from such diverse social and cultural background as are Victoria, Rubi and Ambra. Together, they imagined, conceived and developed “Junax, thread by thread” to give the world a feminine perspective of resilience, solidarity, creativity and work.

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