Set in the highlands of Chiapas, I Died (Li Cham) follows three Tsotsil women — Juana, Margarita, and Faustina — who return to the land to rebuild their lives in the wake of profound personal loss. Marked by experiences of grief and gender-based violence, they cultivate coffee, raise their children, and reclaim a life defined on their own terms. What emerges is a portrait of strength shaped by ancestral labour and communal care.
Directed by Ana Ts’uyeb and told entirely in the Tsotsil language, this lyrical debut traces the subtle influence of Zapatismo, not as a historical moment but as an ongoing framework for Indigenous self-determination and autonomy. With intimate camerawork, quiet resilience, and deep-rooted spirituality, I Died honours a way of life that refuses erasure. Rather than dwell in mourning, the film becomes an act of renewal where memory, land, and womanhood intersect in a cycle of survival, sovereignty, and radical tenderness.
Juana Vázquez Gómez, Margarita Hernández Hernández, Faustina Cruz Ruíz
Mexico
2024
In Tsotsil with English subtitles
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Credits & Director
Producer
Benjamin Fash, Ana Ts’uyeb
Cinematography
José A. Jiménez Pérez
Editor
Ana Ts’uyeb
Original Music
Valeriano Gómez Díaz
Ana Ts'uyeb
Ana Ts’uyeb is an intercultural communicator, translator, and filmmaker from Naranjatic Alto in the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico. She produced and directed the short documentaries Organic Deconstruction and Walks through infancy in 2018 and produced a short documentary, Guardians of the Earth, for the NGO Cultural Survival in 2024. From 2022 to 2023, she served as Communications Coordinator in the Americas for Trickle Up, an NGO focused on the empowerment of Indigenous women through financial inclusion, and she also serves as translator for the NGO Trápaga, which focuses on supporting migrants. Her debut feature documentary is I Died (2024).
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Image: © The New York Times