It’s one thing to acknowledge the world’s problems. It’s another to do something about it.
“Comparsa,” which screens at the Woods Hole Film Festival on Wednesday, July 30 (5:30 p.m. at Clapp Auditorium), tells the story of two sisters, Lesli and Lupe, who respond to violence against girls and women in their community by putting together a youth arts festival in Cuidad Peronia, a barrio on the outskirts of Guatemala City, Guatemala’s capital.
Lesli, 22, and the younger Lupe are especially motivated to act by a massacre that occurred in a nearby town five years earlier at a state-run children’s home. At this (ironically named) Safe House, a riot broke out, with protesters making accusations of rape and other forms of abuse. A day later, 56 girls (ages 14 to 17) were locked in a schoolroom, a fire broke out, guards refused to open the doors and 41 of the girls burned to death.
One of the girls who perished was a friend of Lesli and Lupe.
Lesli appears in face paint in “Comparsa.”
In response to this, and other widespread instances of murder, rape and abuse, the sisters lead members of the Peronia Adolescente, a neighborhood youth group, in preparing and performing in their first women’s comparsa – celebration of freedom.
Largely through the eyes of the sisters, directors Vickie Curtis and Doug Anderson expose the atrocities committed against Guatemalan women while celebrating art as a means of protest, building community, asserting dignity and self-worth, and triggering change.
The directors also introduce us to some of the girls who, along with neighborhood boys, join Lesli and Lupe in taking a stand through the street festival. We can see the fear and pain they experience daily, and how, thanks to artistic expression, those emotions gradually give way to confidence, hope and joy.
No wonder, in capturing all of this, “Comparsa” is such a beautiful, breathtaking film. **** (out of four)
More festival info: woodsholefilmfestival.org.
** Click here for Tim Miller’s previous movie columns for Cape Cod Wave **
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Tim Miller, Movie Critic
Tim Miller is co-president of the Boston Society of Film Critics and a Tomatometer-approved critic. He teaches film and journalism at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or follow him onTwitter @TimMillerCritic. Or you can ignore him completely.
