Synopsis
Following the uprising of January 1, 1994, the Indigenous peoples of Chiapas in Mexico assessed their disaffection with the Mexican education system, describing it as a vector of poverty and injustice. Since then, the Zapatista resistance has remained one of the most intriguing organizations among contemporary international revolutionary struggles, pushing back against the margins of the hegemonic neoliberalism of Western nations and self-proclaimed “democracies”. In the context of globalization, they have also warned the rest of the planet that another world must be made possible. The Lesson of the Snail is a film about decolonizing education and creating spaces for community-based learning.
A word from Tënk
Filmmaker Sylvie Lapointe traveled to the Chiapas region to film her documentary The Lesson of the Snail. Armed only with her camera, her voice, and her determination to share it with those who have none, she visited Mexico’s southernmost state where the Zapatista uprising took place in 1994 by Indigenous people no longer willing to tolerate the poor treatment, neglect, and exploitation they experienced from the Mexican government and population. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (“Army” being used in its loosest sense here, as the movement is peaceful and non-violent) fights to protect and promote the rights of Mexico’s Indigenous peoples and other minorities. They firmly believe that engagement and respect for others must be learned early in life—for this reason, they value childhood education as a means for transmitting important values. Lapointe enters these alternative schoolhouses to share the story of this society through dynamic camerawork and her poetic and engaging voiceover.
The immersion that The Lesson of the Snail affords us within the daily workings of a self-governed people allows us to observe, above all, a belief in an inspiring ideology, a powerful symbol of resistance, a tightly knit community and a great determination that could prove galvanizing to any people that feels neglected by their country.
Jean-François Vaudrin
Head of acquisitions at Tënk
and film critic
