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August 2005
 Byrt
Wammack formed the community-based media organization
Yoochel Kaaj with Ana Rosa Duarte (Maya) to foster the creative
use of audiovisual technologies and independent self-expression
in southern and southeastern Mexico and parts of Central America.
Wammack is interested in promoting local performing arts and video
production as an alternative to commercial television. Yoochel
Kaaj's Television TURIX/Dragonfly distributes a video magazine
of short videos, most of which are produced in rural indigenous
communities of southern Mexico,
where Wammack, Duarte, Jaime Magaña (Maya), and collaborating
media-makers lead youth video workshops. Most of the videos are
spoken in the indigenous languages of the region, and include
regional reports and video letters to other communities. He is
also the cofounder of Geografías Suaves video festival
which includes a regional competiton for residents of southern
Mexico, Belize, and Guatemala. Wammack lives in Merida, Yucatan.
He received his PhD in political economy and philosophy from the
University of Texas at Austin.
"Video in one form or another has become almost quotidian
in
many of the indigenous communities of southeastern Mexico where
it has
also become an important tool for the reaffirming of familial
bonds and
local identities in communities marked by migration. It is also
gaining ground very slowly as a media for independent communication
among communities, and I think that this is one of its most important
uses."
Screened by NMAI
Image credits: Byrt
Wammack at the 2004 Morelia International Film Festival - photograph
by Amalia Cordova
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