"Living Mayas of Guatemala is a detailed study of human ways which explains enough, as it goes along, to give those who see it a feeling of intimacy with the strange customs that are recorded. There have been special film studies of the descendents of the great Central Americans of the past, and these have singled out some particular phase of Mayan life. Giles G. Healey has set himself a larger task, in interpreting the unity of the modern Mayas by following them through each day of a week. We see them at home, at work, at play and engaged with singular devotion in religious observances. These major sequences of the various days are full, and, for the most part, adequately filmed. Action is not posed, and the audience shares with the cameraman the feeling of observing something so vital as to make the filmer's presence entirely incidental. The final portion of Mr. Healey's movie offers a fine record of the special religious ceremony at Chichicastenango. A deficiency of illumination, although a cinematographic detraction, does not destroy the illusion of participation in the communal devotions. Here is an important contribution to the study of folkways, done attentively, intelligently and interestingly." Movie Makers, Dec. 1942, 508.
The film depicts Mayan rites in 1930's Guatemala along with intertitles describing the destruction of Mayan temples by conquerers and the performance of traditional ceremonies at the steps of churches.
"Reportaje Grafico Nacional: Alvaro Chavarria Nunez, who aspires to producing newsreels in his native Costa Rica, presents in this entry a typical effort. The picture is a newsreel of several national events held in this country, and while it displays aggresive camera work, the film result, a dupe print, suffers a great deal because of inferior laboratory work, and therefore the true quality of the photography could not be properly evaluated. Nunez recorded the sound track, using his Auricon film recorder." American Cinematographer, May. 1951, 192.
"“Wooden Face of Totonicapan” is a [1942] color film covering the art of making wooden masks in Totonicapan, Guatemala. The film was made under the auspices of the "Good Neighbor" film project, run by the Office of the Co-Ordinator of Inter-American Affairs in New York as part of the WWII war effort. It was produced by Ralph E. Gray." Periscope Film.
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Amateur Cinema