Ways to go through a Territory

“Ways of going Through a Territory” is a film essay in which the subjective qualities of experience and memory that arise from the act of filming are emphasized. "Traversing" is an instrument of knowledge, experience and symbolic interpretation of the territory, seeing what does not exist and making something emerge from it. Crossing the territory, as an analogy of the place of the image; in an uncertain terrain, such as that of the essay, where subjectivity shows the author of the film in the testimonial experience, that refers both to her experiences in the real world and to experiences during the process of making the film that result in self-questioning. The documentary as a process and not a means to understand the world.

A narrative puzzle in which my questions and reflections are part of the creative inspiration and are also the film device that drives the emotions in the film. Image, word and emotion will be the formula to give meaning to this essayistic wander in which the director seeks to capture the beauty that she experiences when inhabiting the place where the shepherdesses live, while building, in an essay way, relationships between herding and caring to the mountains; between the broken mountains and the memory of a place; and the way in which memory is built through the image, the decisions and dilemmas that arise during meetings when there is a camera involved is questioned.

The essay will weave together the director's findings while she visits the shepherdesses, as well as the discovery of the natural landscape, the dreamlike images filmed in 16 mm and a diverse visual archive.
There is a search for style that is the result of an imaginary framed in 16 mm film, a format that gives the opportunity to feel a more organic time in the image, to patiently attend to the moment of shooting. A series of unique images that save time in an incomparable texture such as cinema. These small vignettes arose from an abstraction of the time shared with them, their gestures and the symbolic reinterpretation that I do of their work and perseverance. They are a kind of intermissions immersed between the subjective and the objective, between the dreamlike and the knowable, between the intimate and the seen.

The sound design will be in charge of Christian Giraud, who will carry out sound explorations that dimension the sound environment, that enhance the echo that is heard in the mountains and that immerse us in the textures of the forest and the city. How does the mountain of Los Altos de Chiapas sound? How does this sound contrast with those of the city of San Cristóbal? The contrasts between rural and urban, steps and extracting machines will also be sought.

The voices of the women speaking in Tsotsil sound stealthy, discreet. There is a cadence that is very particular. Tsotsil is the language of the mountains. Its echo will resound among the silences. The sound environment tells us about the history, the affections, the power relations of a time and space.
Playing not only with the descriptive dimension of sounds, but also with their affective dimension when they evoke in the listener experiences that arouse sensations, emotions.
The voice-over of the narrator, who is the authorial character. It will be a voice that resembles the reserved and intimate tone of Tsotsil women.

What effects does the sound territory we inhabit have on us? What are the sound brands of these territories? What elements make it possible to recognize that place? How does the way and tone of speaking affect relationships between people? How does it affect our emotions and sensations as spectators? What does he propose to us? Where does it take us?

Music and sound design will work hand in hand to generate a subtle, unobtrusive sound. In general music will be used in the 16mm interludes. Wind instruments such as the transverse flute, clarinet, or other soft wind sounds such as the sound of a rotating corrugated tube. Choirs of female voices that resound in the mountains. The music will have a feeling of wind. Music will accompany moments of introspection, also fun moments, playful like sheep.