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About this episode

Global poverty is a big topic on our minds these days, and everyone has seen the painful images of conflict, suffering and destitution. It is said that 80% of the entire human population live pitifully under $2-a-day squalor, that more donations are needed to help save the planet, and it’s a big scary world out there. From grassroots NGOs to faith-based charities to celebrities to $100-laptop initiatives to U.N. Millennium Goals, it seems that most Americans deeply want a better world, but few have a concrete grasp on what the human face of the Third World is really like. “Mayan Territory” is a documentary that is beautifully filmed in over 15 rural and urban locations in Guatemala, Belize and Southern Mexico, a region that is known for both its conflicting poverty from civil war, as well as the crucible of the Mayan civilization. From their own voices, this film examines how technology and ideas have impacted the individual lives of villagers and volunteers alike, and shares my learning experience by portraying villages as I see them: with dignity, focusing on their culture and showing ideas that have risen from their own people to empower them. Exploring a cross-section of territory landscapes, including the colonial charms of Antigua, San Cristobál, Campeche and Merida, to remote ancient temples in dense jungles, to inviting Caribbean shores to the mountainous coffee and sugar plantations, this work is aimed at helping North Americans understand the situation and rediscover the sensual territory that is often stigmatized by negative media. Taste and smell the invigorating place that the poor call “home.”But the heart of the story is “poverty,” and herein, we feature the dramatic voices of rural villagers themselves about their lives, their hopes, and their philosophies. Additionally, are groundbreaking concepts from: (1) Ansel Dubon, who heads the exclusive Green&Blacks Fair Trade Chocolates of Belizean subsistence farmers (2) Steve Crowe of AIDG who conceives on hydropower electricity with American/Guatemalan volunteers, (3) Rigoberto Zamora-Charuc who founded the Biblioteca library bus and recipient of the Bill Gates Foundation innovation awards, (4) Ambar Past of Taller Leñateros (featured in New York Times) who escaped housewife boredom in the states to live in Chiapas among indigenous villagers and learned the language and local technologies to preserve ancient poetry of their ancestors. Mayan Territory is an authentic case to appreciate the Third World, and especially feel bolder to go there and discover new things for themselves. It is an engaging experience that exposes us to a panorama of ideas that are intellectually stimulating, culturally relevant, and refreshing fun. Maximize each day, make it count, and do something good.

• Release Date

  Sep 19, 2007

• Runtime

  24:35