Inter Campus and the EZLN: The Impossible Theatre

It was in 2003 when President Massimo Moratti really took the cause of the indigenous movement in Mexico to heart.  Written correspondence began with Subcomandante Marcos, a representative of the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN). This is a link which has lasted for more than 15 years and which developed further in 2011, the year when the Inter Campus Chiapas project came into being. Every year since then, Inter Campus has worked with the indigenous rebel farmers and their children, supporting the Zapatista school system and promoting educational development.

This is a link that has also been consolidated off the playing field. Indeed, this year the first Zapatista Film Festival took place, with Alfonso Cuaron, fresh from winning the Golden Lion, and Mexican actor Gael García Bernal attending the screening of the documentary Petitas historias das criancas. This is a documentary which was produced in 2008 for Inter Campus by Oscar-winning film director Gabriele Salvatores.

We were happy and honoured to be invited to the festival. We were already able to see the elements which unite us and which transcend geographical distance and political rhetoric in the festival’s programme, whose name, The Impossible Cinema, was skilfully and ironically thought up by Subcomandante Galeano – the name Subcomandante Marcos currently goes by. In Galeano’s mind, it is children who accompany adults to the cinema (there is a colourful poster which exclaims: Adults can only be accompanied by a child) and who lead the audience through a screen. The screen itself is transparent and located in the middle of the room, it needs to be crossed so perspectives can be changed. Just like in a game. Children and playing: these are the two key words when it comes to Inter Campus, a project which seeks to overcome distances, respect differences and always fight in favour of children wherever they may be.

23.11.2018