Film Presentation: Until the Last Beat
Filmmakers Itza Bocken Méndez and Daniel Patrick Holmes present their documentary about the the ancient ball game pok ta pok, followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and the players who brought this story to life. Join them in the MEL Classroom on Saturday September 6 starting at 10:00 AM. The film is in Spanish & Maya with English subtitles.
In San Pedro Chimay, a small village in southeast Mexico, a group of Maya athletes fights to reach the World Cup of pok ta pok, an ancient Mesoamerican ballgame and one of the world’s oldest team sports. After qualifying to represent Mexico, the team faces a major setback: no government support to attend the tournament in Belize. What follows is a race against time as the players and their community unite to fund their journey. Their struggle goes beyond the game, victory could spark a cultural revival in a region where Maya heritage is often overlooked.
The pok ta pok team of San Pedro Chimay is a passionate group of Maya athletes led by Andrés Chi Cob, the head coach, and Angel, a key player. This documentary film follows them as they train and compete to become the best in Mexico. In 2023, they made history by bringing the World Cup to Mexico for the first time, and now they are preparing for the next tournament in Honduras. The community also supports a female team, carrying forward the tradition and inspiring a new generation of players
About the Filmmakers
Itza Bocken Méndez, a Belgian-Mexican filmmaker, and Daniel Patrick Holmes, an award-winning British director, joined forces to tell real stories with honesty and depth. Together, they founded Omma Films, a documentary production company focused on factual films for TV, cinema, and digital platforms. Their work spans from branded documentaries in China to international features like Madame White Snake for Al Jazeera Witness, always rooted in authentic voices and places. Now based in Mérida, Yucatán, they focus on telling human stories from the Yucatán Peninsula that resonate far beyond its borders.
