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.
Best Documentary, Morelia 2025
Media Partner
Community Partner
Juana Vázquez Gómez, Margarita Hernández Hernández, Faustina Cruz Ruíz
Mexico
2024
In Tsotsil with English subtitles
Book Tickets
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).
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Everybody to Kenmure Street
This rousing documentary (100% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) never puts a foot wrong as it recreates a tense, prolonged stand-off between the police and the citizens of Glasgow when an Immigration Enforcement squad attempt to arrest two men from their homes.
Thelma & Louise
In this iconic feminist road movie BFF Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon take off for a weekend getaway that turns violent when one of them is attacked. The stakes get higher as they flee the scene. Winner: Best Original Screenplay (Callie Khouri).
Boyz n the Hood
Twenty-three-year-old writer-director John Singleton's groundbreaking portrait of three young men growing up in South Central is a film of integrity and compassion. It's a far richer portrait of Black lives than Hollywood's gangsta exploitation pics.
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
In 2029, Earth has been ravaged by the war between the malevolent artificial intelligence Skynet and the human resistance. (Yep.) James Cameron's all too relevant action movie is in some ways unsurpassed. Linda Hamilton is the mom we all need right now.
