In 1980 a former philosophy professor named Abimael Guzman and his followers launched a guerrilla war in the highlands of Peru. Their group, Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) nearly brought the country to its knees. As part of the government’s attempt to combat this insurgency, an estimated 15,000 people were forcibly “disappeared.”

Although Guzman was captured and imprisoned in 1992, and former president Alberto Fujimori was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison for ordering massacres and forced disappearances, the real work lies ahead: unearthing and identifying the remains of men, women, and children buried in literally thousands of mass graves throughout Peru.

Since 1997, an NGO known as the Peruvian forensic anthropology team (EPAF) has been struggling to achieve this enormous task. Headed by Jose Pablo Baraybar, who has done similar work for the UN in Rwanda and Kosovo, EPAF painstakingly reconstructs the scenes of these massacres. In matching identities to these previously anonymous remains, they restore a bit of their dignity, and help provide closure and comfort to their families.

Among the Living is a documentary film project of 77 International that examines the impact of forensic anthropology on human rights cases. While TV shows like CSI and Bones have brought forensic science into the public eye, we have little understanding of how this work is being used around the world. Not only does it provide evidence that can bring those responsible for crimes against humanity to justice, but it also plays a part in the healing process for societies that have been torn apart by violence.

Filmmakers Jason Mojica and Jim Milak (Christmas in Darfur?) will follow the Peruvian forensic anthropology team (EPAF) as they travel the countryside, opening mass graves in an attempt to connect them with the thousands of “disappearances” that occurred during the 1980s and 1990s.

Among the Living will put a human face on what are otherwise incomprehensible statistics, and it will help us understand what drives the men and women of EPAF in the face of such an overwhelming task.

[Photo: Ash Kosiewcz]