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Today's "Trailer of the Day" for the 2017 Sundance Film Festival is a bit longer than the average movie trailer — but considering the movie's title, and the years the director has devoted to her topic, that seems appropriate.
Filmmaker Pamela Yates has spent her career chronicling the plight of the indigenous Mayan people of Guatemala — and her past documentaries on the subject, "When the Mountains Tremble" (1983) and "Granito: How to Nail a Dictator" (2011), debuted at Sundance (even before it was called the Sundance Film Festival).
Yates continues the story in "500 Years," which begins with the genocide trial of Guatemala's former persident, Efraín Ríos Montt — a case that viewers saw being built in "Granito," using footage from Ríos Montt's rule shown in "When the Mountains Tremble."
In "500 Years," Yates shows Ríos Montt being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity — a victory for Guatemala's Mayan population, which has lived under the thumb of a ruling white elite for five centuries. The movie details how the Mayan resistance has grown into a movement, seeking equality for the Mayan population. That movement faces new challenges from international commercial projects — open-pit mines, hydroelectric dams, massive agri-businesses — that threaten to destroy Mayan lands.
Yates' "500 Years" will have its world premiere in the Documentary Premieres section of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. It screens at the following times and venues:
• Tuesday, Jan. 24, 6 p.m., Temple Theatre, Park City.
• Wednesday, Jan. 25, 11:45 a.m., Prospector Square Theatre, Park City.
• Thursday, Jan. 26, 6 p.m., Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room.
• Friday, Jan. 27, 3 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinema 6, Salt Lake City.
• Saturday, Jan. 28, 6:30 p.m., Redstone Cinema 1, Park City.
The 2017 Sundance Film Festival runs Jan. 19-29 in Park City and at venues in Salt Lake City and the Sundance resort in Provo Canyon.