Film Description

In January of 2004, the Zapatistas of Chiapas celebrated the 10th anniversary of their uprising. However, a thousand miles away in Emiliano Zapata's home state of Morelos, a more darker chapter in the indigenous democracy movement was unfolding...

The town of Tlalnepantla, an indigenous town of 5000 people, declared itself autonomous after a controversial election whose results were rejected by a majority of the townspeople. At issue was the validity of the traditional indigenous democratic process whereby the town's leaders are elected by a general town assembly in an open forum. This traditional democractic process had been rejected by the state government. Two days after the declaration of autonomy, Morelos state authorities sent 1,500 riot police to storm the town, leaving one person dead, dozens wounded, and thousands of refugees."Tlalnepantla: The Price of Democracy" chronicles this under-reported event, and allows the town's inhabitants to define democracy in their own words.