Sinahal, Mayan Midwife
(Sinahal, señora de los partos)
Gleny Torres / Mexico / 2023 / 77 min




Pricing
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Synopsis
Spanish and Maya with English subtitles
With Doña Rafa Kan Ake, Doña Crispina Euan Chel
Sinahal, Mayan Midwife, directed by Gleny Torres, offers an intimate portrait of Doña Crispina and Doña Rafaela, experienced Mayan midwives whose herbalist knowledge and tactile approaches to prenatal care—likened to “ultrasounds with their hands”—highlight ancestral medical practices deeply embedded in community life.
Operating predominantly in Yucatán towns such as Mérida, Chumbec, Hocabá, Celestún, and Progreso, they serve both local residents and foreigners seeking natural childbirth.
Through observational footage and in-depth interviews, the film examines the cultural significance of Maya midwifery, Indigenous epistemologies, and the intergenerational transmission of healing arts—and how these coexist and resist within a modern medical system. This work is compelling to scholars of ethnomedicine, Indigenous studies, gender, and cultural resilience in Latin American ethnographic cinema.
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About the Director
Gleny Torres is a Mexican Mayan‑Mestiza filmmaker and cinematographer whose work spans short documentaries and visual storytelling. Since 2003, Torres has directed films rooted in Mayan culture—her short documentary Chibal’kan was produced through Ambulante Más Allá in 2012, followed by Aluxes in Yucatán (2013), presented at the International Festival of Mayan Culture. In 2014, she received support from Conaculta‑PACMYC to publish a photo‑book, Wise Men, capturing portraits of Mayan elders.
A graduate of Argentina’s Film School Eliseo Subiela, her visual approach emphasizes Indigenous narratives, cultural preservation, and the spiritual essence of ancestral traditions. In 2023, Gleny Torres directed the documentary Sinahal, Mayan Midwife.
Press
“The work rescues the vision of humanized childbirth, that the woman can decide how to give birth, that she can say 'I want to have it here in my house, with my husband or with my mother holding my hand or with my son' because I have seen births where the older son helps to take out his brother. What we want is for the public to feel the intimacy and purity of this traditional Mayan midwifery, in addition to the fact that ancestral medicine speaks of a great respect for nature.” – A Sánchez, La Jornada Maya
Notes on the Film
“It is a contemplative documentary. Although we address a social problem, more than highlighting the differences between modern and Indigenous medicine, it offers a look into the world of mysticism and wisdom in which the Sinahal (midwives) operate.”
— Gleny Torres, Director