Indigenous Studies Program Lecture Series: Sacrificing the Maya: The (mis)Representation of Indigenous People in Film
The Indigenous Studies Program will be hosting their first Lecture Series
for the 2009-2010 academic year, with a ‘movie night*’ to discuss Indigenous (mis)representation in Mel Gibson’s 2006 film,
Apocalypto. The event will be from 6pm-8pm in CNH 102 on Thursday October 15th.
Set in pre-Columbian central America, the film depicts the journey of one Mayan man trying to escape his captors to return to his pregnant wife and small son…but is this all that the movie portrays?
There will be a panel discussion with Rick Monture (Acting Academic Director, Indigenous Studies program), Hayden King (Lecturer, Indigenous Studies Program) and actor Fernando Hernandez, who played the High Priest in the film.
There has been much debate surrounding this film and the way it depicts the Mayan people. This event will be an opportunity to examine the issues of representation in the film for Indigenous peoples and provide an area of open discussion on the repercussions of such a film. Please see
this link and
this link for more information regarding the issues around
Apocalypto.
If you have questions, or would like additional information, please contact the Indigenous Studies department at
[email protected] or (905) 525-9140 ext 27459. You can also check out the
Facebook event for additional information.
A pdf of the event poster is available below.
*Note: only certain scenes from the film will be shown due to the length of the film
