Through a diverse selection of well-known classics and neglected works due for rediscovery, the two programmes Working the Land and Critical Contrasts present socially committed, independent documentary filmmaking from the Andean region. These films and videos cover a wide range of locations and situations: an international beauty pageant in Lima, an Argentine soup kitchen, a floating city on the Amazon, a series of Chilean film shoots, the verdant highland towns of Ecuador and Bolivia, and the barren outskirts of Bogotá.
After the screening, filmmakers and curators from this year’s Main Focus will discuss the history and significance of political and socially committed cinema from the Andean nations.
Soup Kitchens
Gerardo Vallejo / Argentina 1968 / 6' / 16mm / black & white / no dialogue / Doc
Shot in the impoverished northern province of Tucumán in Argentina, this brief cine-tract shows the children and elderly people who are served by a community soup kitchen that exists independently of state support. The film's sequence of images, many shot in close-up, is accompanied by the Argentine national anthem on the soundtrack.
Radio Belén
Gianfranco Annichini / Peru 1985 / 12' / 35mm / colour / Spanish / Doc
In the Amazonian port of Belén, in Iquitos, Peru, where all forms of work and leisure occur on platforms erected over the water, the local radio station broadcasts its programmes over public loudspeakers. Instead of sensationalizing the residents’ floating shanty town, the film draws attention to the small details of their daily practices and public culture.
Miss Universe in Peru
Grupo Chaski / Peru 1982 / 42' / DCP / colour / Spanish / Doc
A critique of the Miss Universe beauty pageant that was hosted by Peru in 1982, contrasting the global spectacle with a feminist portrait of local Peruvian women.
This Is the Way I Like It
Ignacio Agüero / Chile 1985 / 28' / DCP / colour / Spanish / Doc
During the Pinochet dictatorship, between May 1984 and December 1985, the filmmaker Ignacio Agüero attended the production of five films in order to interview the filmmakers, asking them to describe their experiences and beliefs about filmmaking in Chile.
