Filmmaker to discuss, screen documentaries

The Latin American Studies program will host a visit by independent Mexican documentary filmmaker Francesco Taboada Tabone to campus on Tuesday, April 12. In addition to meeting with classes in Spanish and History, Taboada will be making informal presentations, screening films, and lunching with students. 

Tabone will discuss his film Los ltimos Zapatistas from 12:40 to 2 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, in Room 301, Tisch Learning Center. The movie will be pre-screened at 6 p.m. Monday, also in TLC 301. At 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 12, his film Maguey will be screened in Davis Auditorium of Palamountain Hall. The events are open to the public without charge.

Tabone's work draws on oral history and Mesoamerican studies to uncover the experiences of the last living members of Emiliano Zapata's revolutionary supporters, indigenous activists working to save water, land, air, and and other contemporary topics.

With degrees in Communications Sciences and Mesoamerican Studies, Taboada is focused on research and rescue of Mexico's oral history through documentary films, journalism, and academic talks on subjects ranging from history and environment to participative democracy, cinematography, Zapatismo and Villismo, among others.

He began his film career with the short La Julia (Mexico, 1996) and Enchilada Suizas (Suiza, 1997), and has twice won the "Prix des Jeunes Realisateurs" at the Festival de los Jovenes Realizadores in Switzerland.

His first feature film, Los ltimos Zapatistas (The Last Zapatistas, Mexico, 2003) - an oral history of the last members of Emiliano Zapata's followers in the Mexican Revolution - put him at the vanguard of Latin American documentary cinema. The film won 10 prizes, including "Best First Work" at the Festival de Cine Documental Santiago lvarez, Santiago de Cuba, and "Best Documentary and Photography," Festival de Cine Chicano de Los Angeles. The film has been shown at more than 20 film festivals on three continents.

His feature films include Pancho Villa, La Revolucion no ha terminado; Tin Tan (Mexico, 2010), on language; and Maguey (Mexico, 2010) and 13 PUEBLOS, en defensa del Agua, el Aire y la Tierra (Mexico, 2008), which tackle environmental and social issues of land, water, and agriculture in rural Mexico. 13 Pueblos has won eight prizes, including the Rigoberta Mench prize at the Festival of Indigenous Cinema in Montreal, "Special Mention" in the International Latino Film Festival (Los Angeles) and social organization prize at the International Festival of Cinema and Video of Indigenous Peopules La Paz (Bolivia).