The Living Treasures series features films that present the life stories of veteran potters in the indigenous villages of Oaxaca, Mexico. Different ways of making pottery are “languages,” and Living Treasures aims to preserve this knowledge. Envisioned as a five-chapter series, each film highlights one potter—bringing to life not only their story, but those of local villages, traditions, and clay methods that have been developed over nearly 3,500 years. The films are accompanied by a detailed archive of the pottery techniques and tools used by the protagonist to create the emblematic pieces. The second chapter in the series, LEOPOLDO, features Don Polo (b. 1937), a farmer and potter with deep knowledge of the material culture and the recent history of his town, San Bartolo Coyotepec. He is one of the few potters in Coyotepec who still creates his pots by hand and his own house, alongside his goats, cows, and bulls which help him plow his field every year. Overall, the film series tells the stories of Indigenous peoples; the erosion of their knowledge and crafts; and their resilience within neocolonization and territorial and cultural dispossession. Living Treasures is an intimate invitation to rethink our relationship with the earth, to reconnect with the ability to create–with our own hands–our environment, and recognize what makes us human.

Kythzia Barrera is an industrial designer, artist, and cofounder and codirector of Innovando la Tradición and Coopertivo 1050º. In her practice, art, craft, and design intersect to leverage the power of creativity to shape cultural and social change. Through her leadership, she develops innovative ways to make space for community learning and growth. Extensive travel has transformed her relationship to clay and international communities. She holds a master’s degree in social and sustainable design from the Design Academie Eindhoven; in addition to having completed postgraduate coursework in ceramics at the School of Art and Design Helsinki, Finland; and in crafts and design at Kyoto Institute of Technology. She previously served as sustainable design professor at Centro and Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico.

Diego Mier y Terán is a graphic designer and artist. Along with Kythzia Barrera, he is cofounder and codirector of Innovando la Tradición and Coopertivo 1050º. Mier is interested in the social and ethical dimensions of design and its power as an agent of change. He serves as the creative and communication force behind these organizations and is tasked with developing and implementing strategies, plans, and outreach. He received graphic design degrees from Iberoamericana University and the Minneapolis Institute of Design, a master’s degree in typography design from the Royal Academy of Art (KABK)in The Hague, and completed a postgraduate degree in visual arts from Konstfack, Stockholm. Mier directed UTOPIAS a workshop at Iberoamericana University that prepared students to challenge societal conventions through powerful design. He has been a lecturer/professor at universities throughout Mexico at both undergraduate and graduate levels.

Julio César Saavedra is a Oaxacan native and lives in the Mixteco-Zapoteco territory. He is an independent audiovisual producer, working to develop film material for the Innovando la Tradición archive. He is the director behind Ñuhu, Sacred Beings, which was awarded Best Short by the Morelia International Film Festival in 2023. He is cameraman, filmmaker, and editor for LEOPOLDO.

Nico Aguilar is a cinematographer and a cameraman for Stargate Origins series. Aguilar is an award-winning cinematographer having received the Kodak Student Cinematography Scholarship Award (2015), the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Heritage Award (2016), and the Jury Prize at TopShorts film festival (2017). He is well known for his work in Chupa (2023), Pedro Páramo and Los asesinos de la Luna (2023). Aguilar is a post-production consult for LEOPOLDO.

Innovando la Tradición is a collective and multidisciplinary nonprofit that seeks to revitalize traditional pottery in Oaxaca, Mexico to bring visibility to the profound knowledge of this centuries-old craft. Founded in 2009, the organization positions pottery as a tool of economic stability, cultural development, an agent of social cohesion, and a source of inspiration in the construction of new paradigms for a more balanced relationship with the world. This mission is realized through workshops, courses, and skill exchanges to share the work of master potters and pass on the discipline to younger artisans.