Beautiful, moving, and enraging, Comparsa is a scream and dance with artistry shining a beacon of light for the community in Ciudad Peronia and worldwide.
Comparsa is a celebration of life and freedom as much as a condemnation of the patriarchal state violence in Guatemala that cost the lives of 41 girls in a state-run “safe home.” The documentary takes viewers on a journey five years after the tragic events as Lesli and her sister Lupe, along with a slew of other young women and children, work to put on their first women’s festival. But the documentary is much more. It shows the prevalence and familiarity of that violence and how, even when we fight against it, we can also miss the other facets of that toxicity. Beautiful, moving, and enraging, Comparsa is a scream and dance with artistry shining a beacon of light for the community in Ciudad Peronia and worldwide.
Doug Anderson and Vickie Curtis (Searching for Amani, The Social Dilemma) direct, with writers Anna Handingham and the two main focuses of the documentary, siblings Guadalupe “Lupe” Perez and Lesli Noemi Canela Perez, helping to shape the film. The movie is about a group of girls putting on the first Women’s Festival as an artistic fight and coming together for the community to remember the girls who fell victim to patriarchal violence, including the tragedy that took the lives of all those girls.
Comparsa Is Vital
The scene that encapsulates the experience of being a girl or woman is the little girls playing at night while a news anchor talks about the tragedy of two young ladies, Daniela and Angie, found in a river. The innocence horrifically juxtaposed with atrocity. It’s why one of the answers that hit the hardest when someone online asked what’s the first thing women would do if there were no men was “walk at night.”
Patriarchal violence is inescapable. The tragedy of the 41 girls who passed away at a state-run “safe home” is not the end of the stain of Guatemala’s history. The wings they make for the Woman’s Festival now include Daniela and Angie’s names because the violence has not stopped. Comparsa is a celebration but does not shy away from showing how these girls live under a never-ending threat.
Also, the documentary spends time with some of the other young women, giving us a snapshot of their lives. One thing that returns time and again is the emphasis on the antithesis of silence. Often, in the wake of tragedies, the consensus is a “moment of silence” to honor the dead. But when the victims and you yourself fall into a category that the state silences, quiet is the last thing anyone should be. Comparsa refuses to be silent.
Astounding Creativity
Combined, the creative expression used to show love for the girls who passed away is on another level of beautiful and entrancing. Not only are there the wings with the names of girls lost to patriarchal violence, but others incorporate shoes with flowers, crosses with names, and more. Nor is it just these girls fighting the state. Everyone seeks to make their stand in their own way.
Now, combining that with the fact that these girls have next to no income makes their creations in Comparsa all the more striking. There’s a resilience and determination that each girl possesses. The festival is as much for them as for those who passed; that’s why they say it’s “for those who are gone, for those who remain.”
It Makes You Want to Scream
Comparsa is more than a film. It’s a movement. One meant to celebrate and condemn, to party as a community and persecute the state as the fight to end violence against women and girls continues. It has so much that brews frustration and even more that lifts your spirits because together we can be the change we need.
The women and girls demonstrate how simple it is to fight in whatever ways you can. With director Jayro Bustamente’s Rita, it’s a worthwhile double-header since that film employs childlike fantasy in a fictional recounting to show the atrocities committed by the state, and this film shows the women and girls in the aftermath are determined to stop the violence. Comparsa moves with ease through heavy subject matter and moving artistic expression that refuses to be silent, just like these amazing girls.
