Bolivian film
The history of Bolivian film - i.e. the entirety of the films produced with Bolivian producers, directors and actors in Bolivia - spans over 100 years. In the silent film era , Bolivian film and Bolivian literature of the 1920s and 1930s were shaped by indigenismo and costumbrismo , and in the talkative film era after 1952 by social criticism and the political emancipation efforts of the indigenous population. Few of the major modern Bolivian films are entirely apolitical; however, social criticism takes a back seat.
Silent movie era
The first film screening in Bolivia probably took place in 1897 with a Vitascope . No further details are available for the film documentation Retrato de Personajes Históricos y de Actualidad (1904). The pioneering days began with the short documentaries by the self-taught Luis Castillo González († 1964). At the end of 2012, Castillo began filming life in the city center of La Paz . This film, entitled Vistas locales , was released on January 4, 2013 and is considered to be the first publicly shown Bolivian film. In Arica , Chile , in 1913 he made a film about the opening ceremonies of the Arica – La Paz railway line (1913). This was followed by films about the carnival in La Paz and the national holiday on August 6, 1913 as well as u. a. La Virgen de Copacabana (1926).
Castillo founded the first Bolivian film production company, the Compañía Internacional Cinematográfica , in which he performed almost all important functions from recording to editing to public screening alone. There was no industrial production infrastructure until the 1950s. In 1926, together with the archaeologist Arturo Posnansky , he shot the film La gloria de la raza ("The Glory of the Race") about the indigenous Urus who live on reed boats on Lake Titicaca . In 1927 he made a film about the murder of ex-President José Manuel Pando (also: El fusilamiento de Jáuregui or La sombría tragedia del Kenko ), which was immediately banned and disappeared for 85 years until it was found again in 2012 and a new discussion about guilt or innocence of those involved.
This was not the first case of censorship. The film by José María Velasco Maidana (1899–1989) La Profecía del Lago (1923), the first Bolivian feature film , was banned on the day of its premiere because of its "socially critical" attitude and has been missing since then. The subject of an Aymara woman who loves a white landowner and has to defend herself against accusations of infidelity was later dealt with again by Pedro Sambarino in Corazón Aymara (“Aymara Heart”, 1925). This film was also lost. While it was criticized that the roles of the indigenous people were partly filled with whites, other critics emphasized that it (like La gloria de la raza ) is an expression of an artistic and intellectual movement of indigenism or the aspirations of the 1920s and 1930s Years to the merging of the nation into a people of mestizos reflect, as they are also shown at the same time in the literature of the country .
A similar trend is the romantic-dramatic, partly colorized silent film Wara Wara ( "Star", 1930) of Maydana for a costumbristischen novel by Antonio Díaz Villamil an Inca -Prinzessin in the 16th century who falls in love with a Spanish captain. Wara Wara is still considered to be one of the best Bolivian films. In view of the country's limited resources, it was almost a monumental film. The filming - partly on Lake Titicaca - lasted two years. It was also the only Bolivian silent film that was largely preserved and was shown again in 2010 in a restored form; there are only fragments or scripts of other silent films.
In the 1930s, several important films about the Chaco War followed ( La campaña del Chaco by Mario Camacho, 1933; La guerra del Chaco by Luis Bazoberry, 1934/35, set to music in Spain as Infierno verde in 1936 ).
In 1947 the professional production company Bolivia Films was founded by the American Keneth B. Wasson together with the directors Jorge Ruiz (1924–2012) and Augusto Roca . In 1948, in the midst of a time of Indian uprisings, social unrest and inflation, the first 15-minute sound film ( Virgen India ) was made in Bolivia and in 1949 the first color short film ( Donde Nació un Imperio , “Birth of an Empire”) with a running time of around 20 minutes , both by Jorge Ruiz and Augusto Roca.
The rise of Bolivian cinema
With the National Revolution of 1952, a new era in Bolivian cinema began. Several new production companies were created. The narrator and film writer Óscar Soria Gamarra participated in the activities of Bolivia Films and later in the Grupo Ukamau founded by Jorge Sanjinés in 1968 , mainly with documentaries. The Bolivian film subsequently developed into a film of protest and social criticism.
Two of the most important productions of the early 1950s were "Vuelve Sebastiana" ("Sebastiana Returns", 1953) by Jorge Ruiz about a village irrigation project in Rurrenabaque in which 2,000 villagers played (Ruiz had studied agriculture in Argentina and was a recognized expert) , and Juanito sabe leer (“Little Juan learns to read”, 1953) by Ruiz and Augusto Roca. In 1955 Ruiz made the medium-length film Un poquito de diversificación económica with Sánchez de Lozada , which was awarded the Khantuta de Oro Prize of the city of La Paz. In 1956 he presented Voces de la tierra on the indigenous peoples of Bolivia, which was awarded in the Anthropology category at the Festival des Servicio Oficial de Difusión Radio Eléctrica (SODRE) in Uruguay .
In 1957, Jorge Ruiz replaced the writer and film buff Waldo Cerruto Calderón de la Barca (1925–2006) as director of the Instituto Cinematográfico Boliviano (ICB), founded in 1953, and in 1958 he made Bolivia's first longer sound film, La vertiente , a romance between a teacher and a teacher Cayman -Jäger. He headed the institute until 1960.
Probably the best-known Bolivian director and protagonist of militant cinema was Jorge Sanjinés (* 1936), who has headed the film institute since 1965 and made the situation of the Indian population his subject in 1966 with his first film "Ukamau". The film deals with the rape and murder of an indigenous woman and the revenge of her husband. Ukamau was seen by 300,000 people until the government discovered that Sanjinés had submitted a fake script to avoid censorship. He was fired and the National Film Institute closed. Later the film copies were also destroyed. Aymara or Quechua is usually spoken in Sanjinés' films . His film Yawar Mallku ("The Blood of the Condor", 1969) addressed the forced sterilization of indigenous women by the North American Peace Corps and the resistance of the village population, which led to an act of revenge.
Hugo Banzer's dictatorship began in 1971 , with renewed massacres and many people disappearing. Various coups and coup attempts subsequently led to considerable political instability, which severely restricted artistic work. Sanjinés had to go into exile in Ecuador . His important Sanjinés film, El Coraje del Pueblo ("The Courage of the People", 1971), which was partly made in exile, recreated the 1967 Catavi massacre of Bolivian miners committed by the dictator Barrientos . Antonio Eguino , previously cameraman for Snjinés, screened the four-episode film Chuquiago ("Four Faces of a City") in 1975 . An Indian boy, the son of a construction worker, a civil servant and a student from a wealthy family who live in La Paz, which is shaken by identity crises and social disintegration, are the main actors in the episodes. The scripts for this film, the great response generated, as well as "The Blood of the Condor," "The courage of the people" and Ukamau wrote Oscar Soria Gamarra (1917-1988). In 1975, Paolo Agazzi, born in Italy in 1946, filmed Mi socio (“My buddy”) about a journey through Bolivia by a truck driver and a shoe shine. The film was shown at the 13th Moscow International Film Festival .
Return to democracy 1982–2005
With the return to democracy in 1982, a new era opened up for cinema. A large number of films were made, also outside the capital La Paz. Eguino's second film "Bitter Sea" (1984) dealt with the saltpeter war of 1879–1883. Antonio Agazzi directed the filming of the film Los Hermanos Cartagena (1985) about two brothers who had been on different beings since the revolution of 1952 and the subsequent dictatorship. Sanjinés has repeatedly reaffirmed its reputation as one of the most important directors on the continent. Even if the political directness and militancy of his cinematic statements weakened, he continued to gain artistic profile. In 1989 he presented La nación clandestina ("The Hidden Nation"). Using the example of an outcast who wants to return to his home community, the film shows that, in addition to the Spanish-influenced Bolivia, there is the strong inner nation of the Aymara, which despite the cultural dominance of the conquerors and economic exploitation, thanks to its own resilient culture, has survived 500 years surprisingly well . Sanjinés always focuses on the collective and not the individual hero. In his 1995 film Para recibir el canto de los pájaros (“To hear the song of the birds”), he describes the difficulties of a film crew in winning over indigenous villagers, who regard him with massive distrust, as extras for a film about the Conquista .
The film Cuestión de Fé (“A Question of Faith”, 1995) by the director Marcos Loayza , born in 1959, with the participation of the author and expert on the peoples of eastern Bolivia Jorge Ortiz Sánchez (* 1956) and the director and actor Elías Serrano Pantoja (* 1948 ) has received several international awards. It is about the robbery of a sacred image of the Virgin Mary, which is stolen and dragged from the Altiplano into the jungle on the eastern slope of the Andes, where it finally remains after long negotiations. Rodrigo Bellot , co-founder of the first film school in Bolivia, shot Dependencia Sexual ("Sexual Addiction", 2003) about the sexuality of teenagers in Bolivia and the USA and (together with Martin Boulocq , a graduate of the school) Lo más Bonito y mis Mejores Años (“The most beautiful and my best years”, 2005).
The Morales Era (2006-2019)
Film production has continued to rise since around 2005. Under President Evo Morales , numerous indigenous grassroots film projects were funded, whereby indigenous culture and a multiculturalism criticized as neoliberal as well as the poor highlands and the rich lowlands often came into conflict with one another. However, film as a medium of political agitation has generally lost its influence since the 1990s and has also faced competition from television.
One of the most prolific directors is Juan Carlos Valdivia , who also lives in Mexico. American Visa was created in 2005 through a retired country teacher who travels to La Paz to get a visa for the United States, where he meets a stripper. His films Zona Sur (“South Zone”, 2009) about a single parent struggling with her three children and her domestic servant, and Yvy Maraey (2012) are rated among the best Bolivian films of all time. Yvy Maraey was shown at the Berlinale , Zona Sur at the Sundance Film Festival . In 2011, Boulocq shot Los viejos about a man who disappeared during the dictatorship and is now returning to his hometown. The film Primavera (“Spring”) by Joaquín Tapia , shot in the mining area of Potosí , the story of a girl who is elected Prince Queen, was shown at the 2015 Berlinale. In 2019 Bellot presented his film Tu me manques (2019) about a homophobic Bolivian businessman who blames his son's American friend for his suicide . The first female director in Bolivia, Julia Vargas-Weise (1942–2018), was best known for Carga Sellada (“Sealed Freight”, 2015) with the Mexican actor Gustavo Sánchez Parra (* 1966) in the lead role. This film is based on a true story from 1994 when a toxic load of 400 tons was to be disposed of by train in the Altiplano. The screenplay was written by Juan Claudio Lechín (* 1956).
watch TV
Major television series have been shot in Bolivia since the 1980s. The 15-part telenovela La Virgen de las Siete Calles, based on a novel by Alfredo Flores, is about the orphan Zora who grew up with an aunt in Santa Cruz de la Sierra , but who hates her niece. The director was Juan Miranda (* 1965). Coraje Salvaje with 50 episodes has aired since 2001; This series and many others were shot in Santa Cruz and broadcast by the local private broadcaster Bolivisión . Other telenovelas are Las Tres Perfectas Solteras , Indira , Tierra Adentro , Luna de Locos and Tres de Nosotras .
literature
- José Sánchez-H .: The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema. Scarecrow: Lanham, MD, London 1999.
- Timothy Barnard, Peter Rist (Eds.): South American Cinema: A Critical Filmography, 1915-1994. Routledge, 1999.
- Gabriela Zamorano Villarreal: Indigenous Media and Political Imaginaries in Contemporary Bolivia. University of Nebraska Press, 2017.
Web links
- The Bolivian cinema on liportal.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jorge Ruiz: Foreword to: José Sánchez-H .: The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema. Scarecrow: Lanham, MD, London 1999, p. Viii.
- ↑ According to other information, the film was not made until 1918. See José Sánchez-H .: The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema. Scarecrow: Lanham, MD, London 1999, p. 15 ff.
- ↑ Hallan inédito film mudo que podría reescribir la historia de Bolivia on bbc.com, December 10, 2012.
- ^ Wara Ware , in: Timothy Barnard, Peter Rist 1996.
- ↑ Jeffrey D. Himpele: Circuits of Culture: Media, Politics, and Indigenous Identity in the Andes. University of Minnesota Press, 2008, p. 110; José Sánchez-H .: The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema. Scarecrow: Lanham, MD, London 1999, p. 207.
- ↑ José Sánchez-H .: The Art and Politics of Bolivian Cinema. Scarecrow: Lanham, MD, London 1999, p. 208.
- ↑ Grupo Ukamau on filmlexikon.de
- ↑ Jorge Ruiz at www.cinelatinoamericano.org
- ↑ Jorge Sanjinés on imdb.com
- ↑ Antonio Eguino on filmdienst.de
- ↑ La nación clandestina on trigon-film.org
- ↑ Rodrigo Bellott on imdb.com
- ↑ Gabriela Zamorano Villarreal 2017, pp. 3–5.
- ↑ Zona Sur on kino.de
- ↑ Juan Carlos Valdivia on imdb.com
- ↑ Tu me manques on imdb.com