Unheard Voices: Cinema of Bolivia

By: kuxa kanema

Bolivia, named after independence fighter Simon Bolivar, broke away from Spanish rule in 1825; much of its subsequent history has consisted of a series of nearly 200 coups and counter-coups. Comparatively democratic civilian rule was established in the 1980s, but leaders have faced difficult problems of deep seated poverty, social unrest, and drug production. Current goals include attracting foreign investment, strengthening the educational system, continuing the privatization program, and waging an anticorruption campaign.

Bolivian film like many of the smaller countries in Central and South America has been overshadowed by it’s neighbours Brazil, Argentina and to some extent Chile. Films from countries such as Bolivia struggle to get widespread distribution and are often only seen on the festival circuit. Even films like Blood of a Condor (1969) Jorge Sanjines, and Vuelve Sebastiana (1953) Jorge Ruiz both prize winning films are neglected by scholars and cineastes alike in favour of Cinema Novo or the Argentine New Wave. This list is an attempt to highlight key filmmakers and their films and to hope that in the growing digital age that in some format their lost works can be viewed, even by the small amount of people who want to see them.

In the Bolivian filmmaking industry, aesthetic and political concerns are tightly intertwined. Politics and cinema are closely connected in Bolivia not simply because the country’s political instability is a reality too serious for filmmakers to ignore—Bolivia has had on average a new government every 2.8 years since Independence in 1825—but because the Bolivian government has been a major source of funding for the film industry. — The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema, Shannon Mattiace

1. Pedro Sambarino
In 1923 an Italian director Pedro Sambarino moved to Bolivia. He soon formed a film comapny called Bolivia film and directed many short films and documentaries about Bolivia and its customs. In 1925 Sambarino directed Corazon Aymara considered by many to be the first Bolivian feature film. This documentary follows several People’s celebrations of their national day. Sambarino at the same time founded a laboratory, processing, copying and editing films in collaboration with Raul Ernst as producer and actors from the Círculo Lírico Dramático. Their films often dealt with poor repressed people and native peoples involved in torrid love affairs and often were censored due to their sensitive subjects.

Corazon Aymara 1925
Carnival of Love 1930
Inca Cusco 1934

2.Jorge Ruiz
Jorge Ruiz is known as one of Bolivia’s foremost documentary filmmakers. He was born in 1924 and made his first real break in 1947 when hired by American Kenneth Wassan to work at his film company. In 1949 he worked with Augusto Roca to make Donde Nació un Imperio, Bolivia’s first colour film. In 1953 he made his best known film Vuelve Sebastiana. From 1957-1964 Ruiz became the head of the Bolivian Cinematographical Institute (ICB), and like many of his fellow film makers battled for finances from the government to produce his films. Ruiz was also a fine cameraman working on many projects and was second camera assistant for Cobra Verde directed by Werner Herzog in 1987.

Donde Nació un Imperio 1949
Vuelve Sebastiana 1953
the Source 1959
Mina Alaska 1968
To Return 1969

3.Oscar Soria
Soria is Bolivia’s greatest screenwriter and has collaborated with the filmmaker Jorge Sanjines on several occassions creating the most startling and brilliant films in Bolivia’s history. Soria rose to prominence in 1954 working as a screenwriter and in 1959 combined with Sanjines and Ricardo Road Soria formed the Kollasuyo group. In 1962 Soria and Sanjines co-directed Revolucion the first Bolivian film to win major prizes outside the country. This was to be Soria’s sole directing effort but he would later write the script for Ukamau (That’s the Way it Is, 1966), Yawar Mallku (Blood of the Condor, 1969), and El Coraje del Pueblo (The Courage of the People, 1971) all directed by Sanjines.

Revolucion 1962

4.Jorge Sanjines
Bolivia’s most well known director. Born in 1936 he is best known for dealing with cultural issues concerning the Aymara and the Quechua indigenous peoples. In 1966 he directed Ukamau about native indians in Bolivia and was the first feature film to use Spanish and a native language. In 1969 Sanjines made his finest work and the greatest film of not only Bolivia but perhaps Latin America in the 1960’s, Blood of the Condor The film deals with the sterilization of Indian women by American doctors from the Peace Corps and caused great contraversy at the time. Sanjine’s next film Courage of the People 1971 caused the same reaction and centred on a 1967 massacre of hundreds of people by the government in the mining town of Siglo. This film caused Sanjines to be exiled in France and he only returned in 1979 after the fall of the regime. Sanjines has continued to work through the decades and in 1989 made La Nacion Clandestina about the struggles of a “native indian” working in contemporary society.

Revolucion 1962
Ukamau 1966
Blood of the Condor 1969
Courage of the People 1971
La nación clandestina 1989
The Bird’s Singing 1995
Los hijos del último jardín 2004

5.Antonio Eguino
Eguino first started his career as the director of photgraphy for both Blood of the Condor and Courage of the People, but eventually moved into direction. His films were less political and paved the way a new Bolivian cinema, an intelligent commerical cinema. His second film Chuquiago became one of the most popular Bolivian films of all time and is based on is based on four overlapping stories of individuals from distinct social classes all living in the city of La Paz. The film may have seemed more real to the cinema goers of Bolivia as it examined real lives rather than politics and the native people’s plight. Eguino came back to form in 2007 with Los Andes no creen en Dios it is about a young writer brought up in France, who arrives in a mining town (Uyuni) in the midst of the Bolivian high plateau. Here he meets the beautiful Claudina a sensual, strong willed chola, la “Misqui simi” (“The one with the sweet lips”). Uyuni radiates a strange magnetism, it is charged with a collective euphoria produced by the bewitching mineral. The lives of the characters enter a whirl of passion, ambition and frustration.

Pueblo Chico 1974
Chuquiago 1976
Amargo mar 1984
Los Andes no creen en Dios 2007

6.Paolo Agazzi
Paolo Agazzi was born in Motta, Italy, in the Cremona region. He has resided in Bolivia since 1975. He studied political science and economics in the State University of Milan as well as directing and writing at Superior Institute of Cinematography in Milan. He was Assistant Director of Chuquiago (film) and Executive Producer of Amargo Mar, both of which were directed by Antonio Eguino. In 1979 he wrote, edited and directed the short subject Hilario Condori. In 1982 he directed the film Mi Socio, the screenplay being based on an original concept of Oscar Soria. He wrote and directed Los Hermanos Cartagena released in 1986. After about twelve years he returned in 1997 to direct the film El Día que Murió el Silencio, his third feature film, released in 1998. In 2005 he directed Sena/Quina, la inmortalidad del cangrej and remains one of Bolivia’s most important filmmakers.

Mi Socio 1982
Los Hermanos Cartagena 1984
The Day Silence Died 1998
El atraco 2004
Sena/Quina 2005

7.Rodrigo Bellott
In any conversation about Bolivia’s nascent film industry, the first name that comes up is Rodrigo Bellot. The Santa Cruz-born director has almost single-handedly brought Bolivian filmmaking to international attention. Films such as Sexual Dependency and Perfidy have won the hearts of critics abroad and inspired a new generation of Bolivian filmmakers.

Sexual Dependency 2003
Who Killed the White Llama? 2006
Perfidy 2009

8.Juan Carlos Valdivia
Valdivia is one of many up and coming filmmakers from Bolivia. In 1995 he made his debut with Jonah and the Pink Whale which won an award at the Havana film festival. Valdivia then went on to direct televsion dramas, but returned in 2005 with his big thriller hit American Visa produced by Paolo Agazzi. In 2010 Valdivia had great success for directing his film Southern District which won best directing at the Sundance Film Festival. The film relates the story of the final days of an upper-class family, at a time when the country is undergoing social changes, and looks sure to big hit on the international scene.

Jonah and the Pink Whale 1995
American Visa 2005
El último evangelio 2008
Southern District 2009

9.Adriana Montenegro
A prominent female director in contemporary Bolivia. In 2008 she directed From the Core a dramatic short which uses elements of magical realism to convey the emotions of a woman returning to Bolivia after experiencing the death of her grandfather, and is a young new voice in Bolivian cinema.

From the Core 2008

10.Marcos Loayza
Another talented filmmaker from Bolivia. In 2003 he had his greatest success with Jesus’ Heart a black comedy set in La Paz which unveils the fragile state of mind of a marginalised character.

Cuestion de fe 1995
Ever Changing Waters 1998
Jesus’ Heart 2003
State of Things 2007

OTHER FILMS OF NOTE
Les Carnavales de la Paz, Luis Castillo, 1913
La Profecia del Lago, Jose Luis Maidona, 1925
Wara Wara, Jose Maria Velasco, 1930

Hacien La Gloria, Arturo Borda, 1932
El Ejercito en Villa Anta, Alfonso Gumucio, 1974
El embrujo de mi tierra, Jose Guerra Villalva, 1974

Las Chaskanwai, Hugo and Jorge Cuellor, 1976
Sayariy, Mela Marquez, 1995
the Most Beautiful of My Very Best Years, Martin Boulocq, 2005

This Land Is Ours, Patrick Vanier, 2005
Cocalero, Alejandro Landes, 2007
Evo Pueblo, Tonchy Antezuna, 2007
*Mum Has Not Said It To Me, Maria Galindo, 2003