Navigating Alma's Gang Culture: Exploring Testimonio, Identity, and Violence through an Interactive Documentary

guatemala has struggled for decades with brutal violence under dictatorial rule, government instability, guerrilla warfare, and the Mayan genocide. Government pressure and media consolidation across radio, television, film, and print have inhibited people's freedom to document, share, and critique events happening within the Central American country (Rockwell and Janus, "Stifling Dissent" 497). As a result, documentaries representing the country's issues originated with filmmakers from outside Guatemala, who used locals' stories to convey those traumas to audiences in the filmmakers' home countries (Arias 15). As a key part of their storytelling, these filmmakers frequently used testimonios, which bring voices of the oppressed to the audiences in order to motivate political engagement and potential action. Rigoberta Menchú's written testimonio helped call attention to the human rights violations and institutionalized violence during the early 1980s, and her oral testimonio provided the foundation for the film documentary When the Mountains Tremble (Pamela Yates and Tom Sigel, 1983). Originally created for the US television network CBS and shown as part of the network's CBS Reports series, When the Mountains Tremble was assembled by directors Pamela Yates and Tom Sigel with hopes of mobilizing audiences in the United States (Witham 211–12). Other films from the 1980s and early 1990s that incorporate testimonios include Todos Santos: The Survivors (1989) and Cakchiquel Maya of San Antonio Palopó (1991).

Though the 1996 peace accords eased tensions somewhat, the violent instability and media censorship have continued. With one of the highest violent crime rates in Central America, Guatemala averaged ninety-one murders per week and 613 known sexual assault cases in 2015, according to Alma: A Tale of Violence. The US Department of State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security lists "narco-trafficking activity, gang-related violence, a heavily-armed population, and a police/judicial system that is unable to hold many criminals accountable" as the leading factors driving murder rates ("Guatemala"). The Daily Mail estimated a murder every ninety minutes, with victims' bodies strewn into the streets as warnings by gang members (Stanton). Rape, assault, and kidnapping also remain high ("Guatemala"). The suppression of dissent continues through consolidation of media ownership and that ownership's cooperation with the government. As of 2017, Albavisión owned media in sixteen countries in Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, including forty-five television stations, sixty-eight radio stations, and sixty-five movie theaters ("Ángel González"). Under Mexican owner Ángel González, Albavisión maintains a strong presence in Guatemala, with seven television stations, thirteen radio stations, and one cinema chain ("Albavisión"). Supporting government interests, Albavisión's "content is characterized by their blandness, tabloid nature, or irrelevance to what really is happening in the country" (Rockwell and Janus, "Stifling Dissent" 507).

Filmmakers and journalists from outside Guatemala continue the documentary tradition of incorporating testimonios from citizens into their films for their home audiences. A compelling example is Alma: A Tale of Violence, an interactive documentary directed by Miquel Dew-ever-Plana and Isabelle Fougère in partnership with ARTE.TV (France). Available on the Web and through an iPad app, Alma extends the testimonio tradition into interactive documentary, which ostensibly invites users to participate in the documentary's unfolding on their devices. Alma: A Tale of Violence tells the story of Alma, a Guatemalan woman who joined a gang when she was young and almost died when she tried to leave as an adult, and provides deeper contexts for the violence that accompanies her story. In addition to the narrative, Alma provides background information modules with still images, captions, and statistics to offer further context for Alma's experiences, including about the country itself and the gang culture. Instead of integrating these different information types into the coherent, linear narrative of a traditional film or video documentary, the directors use the interactive documentary to encourage audiences to engage the story on their own terms. According to Isabelle Fougère, "[i]mages, texts, graphics, and sound combine to produce a more all-encompassing experience, leaving space for the unspeakable: it is felt...