| Date: Wed, 7 Jul 93 16:24:11 EST
| From: (Currie Thompson) <cthompso@popserver.cc.gettysburg.edu>
I am sending you this response to your request for suggestions
for the festival. My first suggestion is that a unit on Latin American
native people be included.
Specific materials and individuals.
(1) Although now inactive as far as I can tell, the Bolivian UKAMAU
group from the 60's and 70's is very focused on Bolivian indigenous people.
In fact, also the name of the group and the name of one of their most
famous films (and the names of other films as well) are in Quechua. I
am sorry not to be able to give names and addresses for the two directors
who put the group together--Antonio Eguino and Jorge Sanjines--but surely
the Bolivian embassy could help. (If not, Jorge Sanjines' cousin, Javier
Sanjines, is a member of the Spanish Department at the University of
Maryland.) Well-known films the group made include UKAMAU, YAWAR MALKU,
EL CORAJE DEL PUEBLO, CHUQUIAGO (the most popular film made in Bolivia,
the name CHUQUIAGO is the Quechua name of the city La Paz).
(2) Mexico's Emilio Fernandez was known as Emilio "el indio" ("the
Indian") Fernandez. His films--for example, MACLOVIA, MARIA CANDELARIA--
from the 1940's are a bit corny by today's standards. But they have the
virtue of being early films made by a Mexican Indian. They examine
the plight of the Mexican Indians and their victimization, but they also
stress the importance of indigenous figures in Mexico's history.
(3) Argentina is a nation that exterminated much of its indigenous
population in a series of wars (like the United States), but there are
also some important Argentine films that are worthy of consideration. For
example, EL ULTIMO MALON, filmed in 1917 by Alcides Greca (who was an
anthropologist) is an early--indeed, silent--film that presents an Indian
revolt from a point of view of the Indians. A curious mixture of documentary
(showing some of the practices of the tribe) and of narrative (focusing on
the revolt from the perspective of a young indigenous man and woman who are
in love), the film stresses the abuses of the white Argentines that caused
the revolt. I assume that anyone interested in the film should contact
Patricia Moro at the Instituto Nacional de Cinematografia, Lima 319,
1073 Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Again, one assumes the Argentine embassy
could help.)
(4) A contemporary Argentine director who might be invited to speak
and whose films would be of interest in any case is Miguel Pereira. A
native of Jujuy (the region in Argentina where indigenous cultures have
survived most successfully), Pereira's first film, LA DEUDA INTERNA
(VERONICO CRUZ in English), focuses on the relationship between a rural
school teacher and an indigenous child, Veronico Cruz, who eventually dies
when the British sink the Belgrano in the war for the Malvinas/Faulkland
Islands. Pereira's second film, LA ULTIMA SIEMBRA (1990), also focuses on
Jujuy and its protagonist is a Toba Indian. I have not seen the two
documentaries Pereira has released this year--400 VECES JUJUY (seems to have
been made to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the founding of Jujuy and
is probably a "Chamber of Commerce" film) and LOS CHICOS DEL BELGRANO
(evidentaly again about the Argentines who died on the battle ship Belgrano).
Pereira can be contacted through his producer, Roy Easdale, whose telephone
number in Buenos Aires is 776-0961.
Currie Thompson