9 & 10 oktober
Small(er) Cinemas of the Andes
In various parts of the Andes, a diverse range of films is challenging the hegemonic practices of film production, archiving, and distribution. These productions emerge from marginalized communities, using simple, often outdated devices to make films. These films resonate with sectors of society that have felt underrepresented by mainstream media, showcasing histories and memories that are often lost in the complex socio-political contexts from which they arise.
On these two evenings in October, we will present a selection of these films curated and introduced by three Latin American scholars who are part of the book Small Cinemas of the Andes: New Aesthetics, Practices and Platforms (2023). After the screenings, they will also engage in a discussion with the audience.
This program is organized in collaboration with the Centre for Research and Documentation on Latin America (CEDLA) at the University of Amsterdam and their seminar: Cinema & Culture in the Andes. The seminar takes place on October 10 and is free of charge. If you wish to attend, please follow this link: https://www.cedla.nl/events
Woensdag 9 oktober, 20:30
SPECIAL
Small(er) Cinemas of the Andes:
Peruvian Horror Cinema
La casa rosada
Palito Ortega Matute | 2016 | Peru | 111’ | Spanish, EN subs
Adrián Mendoza (52), a father and widower, faces a difficult struggle for survival alongside his children, Juan de Dios (12) and María del Carmen (10), due to the effects of the internal conflict in the turbulent city of Ayacucho during the 1980s. Amid the chaos, he is detained by the authorities and labeled a suspected terrorist. His position as a university professor complicates his fate. In an atmosphere of pain, chaos, and disappearances, his children begin a tireless search, where every path leads them to the feared 'Casa Rosada.'
This is the posthumous work of Palito Ortega Matute, one of the most prominent filmmakers of Peruvian regional cinema.
Introduction and Q&A by Diana Cuéllar Ledesma independent researcher and art curator, PhD in Artistic, Literary and Cultural Studies from Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
Donderdag 10 oktober, 20:30
SPECIAL
Small(er) Cinemas of the Andes:
Ecuadorian Small(er) Cinemas in a double-bill
1st part: OJO SEMILLA audiovisual shorts
These short audiovisual pieces were collectively written, filmed, and edited in the Ojo Semilla Feminist Laboratory, which brings together feminists and female-identifying producers, community-based photographers, filmmakers, popular educators, and leaders in a process that includes dialogue, play, visits to neighboring community organizations, healing rituals and the collective production of films.
In Ojo Semilla’s week-long residencies, diverse women live and work together, during which time they work in teams to craft several short films with a feminist focus and gendered perspectives. The stories, told through fiction, non-fiction, music videos, video poems and animation, center on topics that affect our daily lives including: sexual and reproductive rights, women’s labor, the defense of bodies and territories and more.
The three short films listed here were produced in March 2020 in Chota Valley, a historical Afro-descendent settlement in Ecuador. In this residency, approximately 40 women traveled from various regions in Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and beyond, from the Amazon, coastal regions, valleys, cities and highland towns. For many of the participants, it was their first time making a film, or working collectively to make a film.
The roar of our voices (El retumbar de las voces)
Ojo Semilla | 2020 | Ecuador | 5’ | Spanish, EN subs
This video clip was recorded in the valleys and mountains of the provinces of Imbabura and Carchi, by diverse women that through their cultures, cosmovisions, and spiritualities, relate the importance of their bodies as the first territory to defend.
Mujer montaña (Mountain woman)
Ojo Semilla | 2020 | Ecuador | 4’ | Spanish, EN subs
Mountain Woman is a videopoem made by women from various territories and Indigenous nationalities narrating shared realities part of their lives as popular women and community feminists.
Carillas: Strong and fierce women (Carillas: mujeres fuertes y aguerridas)
Ojo Semilla | 2020 | Ecuador | 10’ | Spanish, EN subs
Carillas is a fictionalized story based on some real events and histories. This story of a mother and daughter who are seeking to improve their economic situation, confront racism, and defend their identities as Black women. This story speaks to the resilience of Afro-Ecuadorians, that have sought to safeguard their culture and traditions from colonization processes. In a dream we meet Martina Carrillo, an ancestor and local heroine that defended her people against the injustices suffered during plantation enslavement. In this short film, she guides the daughter to recognize her own courage and resistance. This production was shot in the community of Mascarilla and is based on life experiences of women who live there.
Introduction and discussion by Diana Coryat, educator, media practitioner, and scholar. Her recent work focuses on ecoterritorial and feminist community media. She is part of Ojo Semilla and editor of the book Small(er) Cinemas of the Andes.
---15 MIN PAUSE---
2nd part: Two essay films by Libertad Gills + Q&A
Using pre-existing materials Gills invites us to think about cinema today, in Ecuador and beyond. About what cinema has been and what cinema might become.
1922
Libertad Gills | 2023 | Ecuador | 30’ | Spanish, EN subs
What to do when a film archive for an important historical moment does not exist? 1922 takes the case of Ecuador's worker's strike and massacre of November 15th, 1922 for which there is no known archival moving image. Turning to another film from 1922 preserved by the country's National Film Archive, Fiestas del Centenario, as well as other international films made that year, I've tried to imagine what an audiovisual archive of that historical moment might look like. This leads me to questions of what was cinema in 1922 and in what ways cinema can collaborate with class struggle in the future.
Inspired by Hito Steyerl's essay "In Defense of the Poor Image", this found footage essay film reclaims the "poor image" in the context of past and present class struggle in Ecuador.
Por un cine cachinero (For a cine cachinero)
Libertad Gills | 2024 | Ecuador | 10’ | Spanish, EN subs
Video essay based on the manifesto "Por un cine cachinero" ("For a cine cachinero") written by the film collective Guayaquil Analógico and published in 2023 in the book Guayaquil en ruinas: Cartografía fílmica de una ciudad. This manifesto calls for a cinema based on the practice of reusing and reappropriating discarded objects ("cachinería", in Ecuador). Comprised of contemporary experimental films made in Ecuador with 35mm, 16mm, and Super 8mm, this video essay brings together different works by different filmmakers, in order to propose a cinema of cachinería, or a cine cachinero.
Introduction and Q&A with the filmmaker and academic Libertad Gills. She is a postdoc researcher of the Future of Cinema & the Audiovisual Arts at Università della Svizzera Italiana, in collaboration with Locarno Film Festival.