MEXICO CITY (AP) – “When the Mountains Tremble” was an award-winning movie that awakened wide attention to the war in Guatemala. But at least one thing turned out to be wrong – and filmmaker Pamela Yates says she’s going to set it right.
A dramatic scene from the 1983 documentary will be corrected to show that the Batzul massacre highlighted in the film was committed not by the military, but by leftist rebels disguised as soldiers.
“We intend to make a correction that will clarify what happened,” Yates said in a statement last month. “It stands as a reminder of the terrible human costs of the violence in 1982-83.”
She said she will also amend a 2011 follow-up documentary, “Granito: How to Nail a Dictator.”
In 1982, Yates and her team traveled by helicopter to a mountain village where residents were mourning over the bodies of 17 men. In the documentary, women in traditional dress are heard wailing, their stunned faces shown up close as others look over the bloodied bodies of the dead. When asked which group was responsible, one woman, speaking in the local Quiche language, responds “It was the same as a soldier’s uniform. They said, ‘We are soldiers.'”