March 2011

Mauricio Acosta produces and directs documentaries for Tejido de Comunicación, the communication network of the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte (ACIN) in the state of Cauca, Colombia. Tejido de Comunicación promotes the autonomy of indigenous communities through media. In 2006 Acosta's video Pa' poder que Nos Den Tierra, was recognized at the Festival Internacional de Cine y Video de los Pueblos Indígenas for its effectiveness in bringing attention to the violence inflicted on indigenous peoples in Colombia, and the communities' peaceful resistance. Acosta conducts community video workshops for Tejido de Comunicación and works as a graphic designer at the Universidad del Cauca in Popayán, Colombia.

"Indigenous video constitutes a space to strengthen culture and should be thought as such, for it is necessary that the indigenous communities appropriate audiovisual language not only as a medium of denunciation and resistance, but also as a tool that promotes the knowledge and values of the communities through their own protagonists."

Screened by NMAI

• País de los Pueblos sin Dueños/Country of the Peoples without Owners (2009) director
• Raised by Our Own Authority (2006) director
• Pa' Poder que Nos Den Tierra/Power to Give Us Land (2005) director

For More Information

• www.nasaacin.org/

Image credit: Mauricio Acosta - photograph by María Teresa Guerrero Bucheli

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