The “Puy Ta Cuxlejaltic,” (Snail of our Life) ‘an impossible film festival’ organized by the National Liberation Zapatista Army (EZLN), kicked off Thursday in southeast Mexico, featuring both independent films by indigenous communities and large productions by award winning directors.

The first edition of the festival (the EZLN hopes to do an annual event) is taking place at Oventik, one of the Zapatista rebel territories or ‘snails,’ in Chiapas from November 1 to 9, with a secondary location at the Indigenous Center of Comprehensive Training-Earth University (Cideci-Unitierra) in San Cristobal de las Casas.

The Academy-nominated film ‘Roma,’ a bio-pic by the Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuaron, set in a neighborhood of Mexico City, will inaugurate the festival even before it hits theaters or streaming platforms. Cuaron’s production team reportedly participated in the festival’s logistics and provided the Zapatistas with a portable movie theater dubbed ‘Comandanta Ramona,’ including the screen, sound and seats for the time of the festival.

The festival is divided in 11 sections according to themes, including ‘Oh, really?’ (in which Cuaron’s will be screened), ‘Falling and getting up,’ ‘Dreaming the Reality,’ ‘the Storm,’ ‘Yesterday and Today,’ ‘Resistance and Revelry,’ ‘Sing, Sow, Dance, Play, Tell That Memory,’ ‘Meanwhile Up There…,’ ‘Not Forgiveness, Not Forgetting,’ ‘We Salute You, Always,’ and ‘Looking Oneself in the Mirror,’ each of them divided into smaller sections.

The organizing committee made it very clear the festival was for and by the Zapatista communities working on films, but that other people would also be invited to come.

“If there’s still room, others will be let in (which, sincerely, seems difficult because, at least for the first days, we’re expecting a Zapatista audience of 4,000 people wearing balaklavas),” wrote the Sup Galeano, formerly known as Subcomandante Marcos, in the latest press release about the festival.

Children and adults will also enjoy films at the Emiliano Zapata 3D Child Cinema, featuring movies for children. The Zapatistas explained that the theater includes ‘3D’ in its name because it’s made up of three screens pointing in three different directions.

But if those theaters are full, the rest of the people still can enjoy the ‘Step-In Maya’ (no cars allowed), an open-air screen with a capacity for 10 thousand people at Oventik’s basketball courts. Films will start at 6 p.m., if weather allows it.

Some of the featured films are 'Rudo y Cursi' by Carlos Cuaron; 'Once Upon a Time,' by Juan Carlos Rulfo, a film about the renowned Mexican writer Juan Rulfo; 'Pan's Labyrinth,' by Guillermo del Toro; 'Cherán. Tila y Ostula,' by the independent media outlet SubVersiones; '500 years,' by Pamela Yates, which is about Guatemala's indigenous struggles; as well as many others.

The special sections 'The Fourth Transformation... of a Film," features four films by the director Luis Estrada, while 'Looking Oneself in the Mirror' includes four documentary films produced by 'Los Tercios Compas,' or Zapatista media professionals, in the Tzeltal, Chol and Tzotzil Mayan languages.

Besides the movies, support networks organized concerts, plays, dances, exhibits and other activities for the general public.

The EZLN calls for art festivals periodically, now under the ‘CompARTE’ (a wordplay between share and art) banner. They hope this film festival will also become an annual thing.