This March, Na’atik hosted a group of University of Tampa film students led by Professors Christopher Boulton (@docboulton) and Andrew DeMil (@andrewcaponelimed), who visited the region to create short documentaries about local community projects in Felipe Carrillo Puerto. Each film crew had only a few days to research, prepare and shoot their films, aided by Na’atik teachers acting as translators and cultural guides. 

One of these films, titled Cadena en Cadena (Stitch by Stich), focused on Lol-chuy, an embroidery collective who is maintaining traditional Maya handicrafts in the community of XPichil. The talented film crew made up of director Rachel Thompson (@rachelthompson62), producer Juliana Kasmanas (@julianakg), sound engineer Sarah Jane Kopecky (@sarahjanekopecky) and editor Andrew Miller (@andrew__millerr) were assisted with the production by associate producer and interpreter (and Na’atik teacher) Erick Joaquin Chuc Santos (@erickchucsantos), who lives and grew up in XPichil.

The film’s sensitive and heartfelt representation of the passing down of tradition and expansion of gender roles has been recognized with nominations and prizes at film festivals both at the University of Tampa and at the international level. This month the film received a Jury Special Mention award at the Americas Film Festival in New York, where it also held its world premiere. Dr. Boulton shared this reel of the wonderful evening.This prestigious award ceremony is just the first of many, with the film in consideration for awards from Mexico to Turkey in the coming months. You can follow their success story at the official instagram, @cadenaencadena

The six minute documentary can be viewed here.

With support from the University of Tampa’s College of Arts and Letters, Office of Undergraduate Research and Inquiry, Honors Program, and International Programs Office, Professor Boulton was able to fly the whole team (except Rachel who was in Europe) to New York City to receive the award where Erick, speaking from the Stage of the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian, greeted the gathered crowd in Yucatec Maya. For Erick, a devoted cinephile and advocate for his Maya culture, who has always dreamt of a career in film, being able to be involved in this project has been a life-changing experience. He was also delighted to be able to visit the US and New York for the first time.

The team decided that the award belonged with the people of the Lol-chuy Cooperative, and entrusted Erick with carrying the trophy back to his hometown.

For us here at Na’atik, we are delighted to see the wonderful projects in this part of Mexico being featured in film, and glad to have been able to help introduce the students to the culture and way of life here. Congratulations to the filmmakers and to the team at the University of Tampa who made all of this possible. 

We look forward to seeing more success from them in the years to come.