A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Release Date:
January 1, 1981
Original Title:
Meta Mayan
Alternate Titles:
Meta Mayan II
Genres:
Documentary
Production Countries:
United States of America
Ratings / Certifications:
N/A
Runtime: 20
Shot in the Guatemalan Highlands, Meta Mayan II is a keenly observed, poetic video essay on the indigenous culture of the Mayans. Velez's vision is intensely personal; avoiding overt editorializing or ethnographic analysis, he depicts the landscapes, gestures, textures and rhythms of their culture in powerful, evocative images. The political and internecine conflicts confronting the Mayans are conveyed through the sound of American news broadcasts. Through subtle video effects — rapid, almost liquid pans, magnified close-ups, and slow motion — Velez expresses their strength and dignity. His highly charged, slow-motion image of a Mayan woman, gazing with curiosity and suspicion at the camera, becomes an eloquent metaphor for a culture in transition.
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Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.