Documenting Murder

Who’s the world’s most badass documentary filmmaker? Pamela Yates is a strong contender. As a baby-faced emerging director 29 years ago, she provided the only known footage of genocide carried out by the Guatemalan army during a civil war that pitted a military junta against indigenous peasants. Unafraid in her...

By Gabriela Garcia

February 2, 2012

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Who’s the world’s most badass documentary filmmaker? Pamela Yates is a strong contender. As a baby-faced emerging director 29 years ago, she provided the only known footage of genocide carried out by the Guatemalan army during a civil war that pitted a military junta against indigenous peasants. Unafraid in her mission to expose the crimes, she deceived murderous generals into granting her interviews by posing as friendly media. And she handed the mike to then-22-year-old community organizer Rigoberta Menchú, who went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Four years ago, when former dictator Efraín Ríos Montt was internationally indicted for genocide, Yates’s film When the Mountains Tremble and its outtakes became evidence in the case. In last year’s Sundance hit Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, she revisits old footage and documents the journey that took her from film school to international war crimes court.
Mon., Feb. 6, 7 p.m.; Tue., Feb. 7, 7 p.m., 2012

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