Screening: Burden of Peace + Q&A

This screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Joey Boink.

Burden of Peace tells the impressive story of Claudia Paz Y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Guatemala. Ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, the country today is one of the most crime-ridden in the world. Paz Y Paz starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraín Rios Montt on charges of genocide against the Mayan Indians.

Each year, nearly 6,000 people are murdered in Guatemala, and the individuals responsible almost always avoid prosecution. When Claudia Paz Y Paz took office in 2010, senior political officials openly criticised her soft spoken demeanour and questioned her ability to combat issues of crime and corruption, claiming that the position of Attorney General is not suited to a human rights lawyer.

From her first year in office, Paz y Paz offered full access to Framewerk filmmakers Joey Boink and Sander Wirken to encourage transparency within the international community regarding corruption in Guatemala’s justice system. While following Paz y Paz throughout her time in office, they document the first trial in the world in which a country prosecutes its own former president for genocide. Burden of Peace offers shocking access to previously unseen meetings addressing the country’s strategies in dealing with an exponentially growing crime problem.

Directed by Joey Boink
Producer: Framewerk
Duration: 76′
Year: 2015
For any enquiries contact [email protected]