Military Occupies Indigenous Highlands 1982 by Jean Marie Simon

Has the film been shown in Guatemala?
We showed it to the people who appear in the film, but we’re planning to do a big opening in the capital in January so that our outreach partners will be able to go into the provinces and show it throughout the highlands at the same time. So it’s not just for the intelligentsia, but for everybody in the country. We have a Spanish version, we’re also making K’iche’ and Ixil versions. K’iche’ is the language that the majority of the Maya speak, and Ixil is the language of the Ixil area, where a lot of this film was shot. If you’re Maya and you don’t speak Spanish, then you didn’t go to school and you probably can’t read or write, and they’re not used to reading subtitles anyway, so having it dubbed into their language makes it really accessible.

The generals behind the genocide still haven’t been brought to trial since Guatemala refused to extradite them.
But they have been indicted, they have been issued arrest warrants; they can’t leave the country. In the last three months more people have been arrested for the crimes of 1982 than in the last 30 years. And the one indictment of an army official on the charges of genocide happened in Guatemala on June 17, so I think there’s a tipping point coming for justice and I hope that Granito can be part of that.

The Guatemalans in the film are very persevering. Their granito de arena (grain of sand) philosophy – being a small part of a bigger thing – must have been inspiring.
When I first started to make the film, I thought that it would be about the generals being extradited to Spain and being tried and found guilty,