Balancing the Cosmos    To view a video, click on your connection speed (56k or 300k)
Location: Guatemala   Length: 22 min         56k   300k                56k   300k
On a lake set amongst volcanoes in the Guatemalan highlands lies the contemporary Mayan town of Santiago Atitlan. As keepers of what they believe to be the very navel of the world, the people of the town keep the cosmos itself in balance by performing rituals that echo the ancient traditions of their prehispanic Mayan ancestors. This video features the ceremonies carried out by the townspeople during Easter Week, an outwardly Christian celebration with a surprising measure of ancient Mayan practices.

Hand Made: Three Stories from Guatemala (Hecho a Mano)    To view a video, click on your connection speed
Location: Guatemala  Length: 27min     56k      300k      700k      56k      300k      700k
This is a film about the Maya people emerging, through their own impressive efforts, out of a dark past. Living in a nation with a history of severe under-representation of indigenous Maya communities, Saul Roblero, a young aspiring Guatemalan journalist, sets off across his nation's countryside to do what few have done before: have the Maya people tell their own stories! The resulting journey honestly reveals the voices of living communities within the greater Maya civilization.
Hospitalito Santiago Atitlán 
Location: Guatemala   Length: 13 min      56k   300k   700k         56k   300k   700k
As keepers of what they believe is the very navel of the world, people in the highland Guatemalan town of Santiago Atitlán hold the cosmos itself in balance by performing rituals (see TAC video Balancing the Cosmos) echoing the ancient traditions of their prehispanic Mayan ancestors. Closed by civil war, the town's hospital, or Hospitalito, reopened after 15 years with great hopes in April 2005. On October 5, 2005, tropical storm Stan sent a six foot wall of mud that struck the Hospitalito and buried alive 1400 town residents.
   
K'ante ‘el – Precious Forest   To view a video, click on your connection speed (56k or 300k)
Location: Guatemala    Length: 11 min        56k    300k               56k    300k
The peaceful Guatemalan rain forest hides an ancient story of empire building and disaster in the ruined Maya city of Waka', now called El Peru. K'inich Balam (Sun-faced Jaguar), who ruled Waka', severed ties with the city of Tikal and married Lady T'abi, a powerful royal princess from Calakmul. Just decades later, Tikal conquered both Calakmul and Waka'. In about A.D. 800, Waka' was destroyed and then abandoned to the forest. Today, archaeologists seek to recover Waka's story and protect it and its precious forest from the plunderers of modern times.
   
Saving the Cradle of Maya Civilization: Mirador Basin, Guatemala    
Location: Guatemala   Length: 9 min     56k    300k    700k      56k    300k    700k
The Mirador Basin, Guatemala, is noted for its many pre-Classic Maya cities and monuments, predating the Classic Maya sites of nearby Tikal by 800-1200 years. La Danta pyramid, at El Mirador, may be the largest in Mesoamerica. The Mirador Archaeological and Wildlife Preserve, proposed by the Global Heritage Fund and others, may be the only chance to save the last forests of the Maya Biosphere, of which 70 percent has been cut and burned in the past decade, from an environmental catastrophe similar to that seen by the ancient Maya.
   
Tikal: A CyArk Case Study    To view a video, click on your connection speed
Location: Guatemala   Length: 4 min     56k    300k    700k      56k    300k    700k
Tikal, a World Heritage Site in Guatemala, exemplifies CyArk, a project of the Kacyra Family Foundation that is preserving the world's most valued cultural heritage sites in three-dimensional digital form. Tikal, the largest ancient Mayan city, contains some of the most spectacular Mayan architecture, but is subject to natural erosion as well as the impacts of massive tourist traffic. This video shows how CyArk is preserving the site in digital imagery through laser-scanning technology and the most accurate 3D models possible today.