We express better with images than with
words but I’ve decided to take this
challenge to come here and talk to them about a
little of my work that have a lot that
do with the reality and lies and
what is a trip
the documentary to fiction
I must admit that I have had certain
reluctance with this format because I
he remembers a lot the cinematic pits
which is a very particular instance of
cinema and very uncomfortable at times it is
basically to sell your project to a
group of strangers almost always
jury of funds and possible
investors and it has not always gone
well in that field
so I understand that it ‘s something else and I’m going
to try to talk is the most
relaxedly possible within the case
of my work as a filmmaker in a
moment when the cinema the equator has
grown a lot and looking for new ways to
of production exhibition and in general
of creation and
everything started in the late 90’s
I wanted to study film but there was no
so many options at that time as there are
now
finally opt for a university of
whose name I do not want to remember that in
his presentation brochure showed a
man with a movie camera
I said here it’s into account how sometimes
the most transcendental decisions can
be so casual
luckily now there is more information and
the boys find out more in the
internet of what to what they are going to
to enter not but at that time it was not
so so
and the truth is that we never saw until
plus
we never saw them even though we had
some teachers who worked in the
theme film and audiovisual
we never got to see any camera in
no side and that gave us a
feeling of how disappointed with
regarding our studies and we decided
do something about it
with a partner and photographer friend
if we get a camera a camera
little one a homemade camera in that
epoch video 8 I think it was still and
we started to aggravate testimonies of the
college people students
teachers and even staff
administrative and so on
for several weeks and and we achieved something
as well as 100 testimonials with a
camarita and clear people what
we tried to explore was this
feeling that we had the
disappointment regarding our
studies through the others not
we were because there was a discontent
widespread also at that time in
the whole country there is a discontent
widespread I’m talking about the year 99
2000 an environment was lived and through
of his testimonies was achieved how to capture
that as a feeling from something
as simple as taking a camera and and
converse with people and record these
interviews this exercise for me and
it woke up many things record those
conversations did not and I think it marked everything
what I have done after that why
he mentioned
that is the first exercise of the caller
presence of interviews after
see the material to transcribe the
interviews of to go arming a story to
from these these loose pieces a
kind of puzzle that is the cinema
documentary what the cinema can be
documentary and that is also very very
feasible to do it especially in this
era that they were beginning to see cameras
digital ones which cheapened the
costs of documentary and cinema in
general that as you know is a
expensive activity and
arduous in many cases and especially in
our countries is the first
experience motivated me to leave the
university which I do not recommend for
right now that is so important
cardboard and when you throw yourself fully into a
documentary project on a subject that
passionate about a historical subject a
character that was real but seemed
fiction that is to taste san miguel el
first filmmaker of this country who are
the first fiction movies in
the 20s in guayaquil with titles
as suggestive as the treasure of
atahualpa you need a bus a
abyss and two souls and so on
the terrible thing about this whole story is that
the movies did not exist
movies were lost in time
as it happened with a good part of the
production of your years in the world already
that if not, it was not considered an art
still nothing or something very
future
then all that material all the
first movies all those memories
of the country was lost and there were even 10
the legend that San Miguel had
buried with his movies
then they will realize that it was a
great starting point for a
documentary then I have again a
camarita now yes a a little camera
better a better microphone and I went to
guayaquil to converse with people
great that I could remember and help
reconstruct that forgotten story
it’s that aspect that a lot of people do not
knew that there had been or not a
kind that the 20s
he made movies in guayaquil
curiously with mountain themes
so that was my first serious job
adusto san miguel has died yesterday
I like to say it’s kind of
cult movie because I still
they know in the most unusual places
I tell people mostly students
Young girl interested in cinema in this movie
a little looking for the origin of this
activity in our country
So that was my first job
serious in the year 2003 and and especially
there I learned one thing that I think is
relates to what I am going to tell you
after
and is that the documentary is not always
something like you think completely
objective neither truthful nor you have
relation to the documentary with the veracity
with the real and today is the first job
I already realized certain things that
the documentaries happened that those that
what the approach to fiction
the single fact of selecting some
things to put some things and others no longer
it is a manipulation
then it was the great lesson for
my
of that work and that in some way
also food what came after
After that experience I went to Europe
where I was some years I studied
film courses in some cities but
I mainly dedicated myself to watching movies
I think that’s important for
all people interested in the
art
if you want to do if you do not have to see
a lot of cinema if you want to write you have
to read a lot and so no more than
the academic part let’s say I’m a
little a defender of the pasture of that
self-taught capacity especially in the
land of art and in those years in
Europe
I discovered the character that he would be the
the character of me of me of my
next movie and for which I have
invited here that is what is called a
secret in the box
the character is called marcelo chiriboga
you some of you will have
heard from this one
Mr
I discover it in a book by de jose
Donoso a Chilean writer where
mention for the first time this success
if boom Ecuadorian writer the
generation of the Latin American boom that
many will know composed of people
as vargas llosa garcía marquez
cortázar etcetera
and suddenly I read of this one marcelo
chiriboga that with his novel a secret
in the box had been translated to a
thousands of language to the main
languages of the world and has sold around
side and it was super famous it caused me
a kind of doubt not who is
who is this guy and how is that how
It is possible that I, being an Ecuadorian
have never heard of this man
who is I think that whoever was
hiding not then investigating
I realized that obviously I did not know
nothing of chivas by chiriboga does not exist
it’s a fictional character but that’s
the doubt that woke up in me
ss that question and that question not me
they seemed again a great excuse
to make another movie not for
make a documentary but not a
documentary as we know it but
a documentary a fake documentary that is
an exciting cinematographic genre
and in which I got into Hong Kong with
this character by luck
Donoso had not given so many details
about the life and work of
chiriboga then I set out to arm
that is the artist’s biographical account
as I had done with august san
miguel and I started to investigate I started
investigate about boom writers
and especially about the literature on
the history of the equator because for me
the key question of the movie was
that he had tried the great novel
Ecuadorian boom
If this had existed or not, that was
the key question for
to boot and as I said
researching and studying on
boom writers
I realized that almost all of them what
they did was to work with the stories
from their countries in a reworked way
the stories of their countries through
of that of fiction not then the
answer for me was the novel grain
of the homeland of the boom written by
us and I’m going to call the line
imaginary was about the war of 41
with the Peru that for me is a fact
key to understanding the equator in the
20th century
so if there was any way
became an excuse to explore
the history of the equator as I tell you in
the 20th century as a result of this conflict and
everything that came after
then it’s a job where where where
reality and fiction are
they intermingle is this movie was
released a year ago
we released it on the internet during
like in a weird movie too
we wanted to do something with nothing with the
distribution that as you will know
is one of the most complex parts of
cinema then we continue April to open to
aguilar the possibility of seeing it in
internet for ten days as a
way to promote the movie before
go through an alternative circuit of
rooms we did not want to go to the halls
commercial because many times the
Ecuadorian movies are like
out of context and between so much
Hollywood blockbuster for
a childish and or infantilized public
the Ecuadorian movies sometimes many
times they are out of context as he said
so
we designed this this alternative plan of
exhibition that works very well and
which was very interesting because a lot
people saw in those ten days
was on the internet and many people a lot
many people who believe that the
I would have seen if we were premiered
in salads not then and the movie
he also generated many comments
many articles many reflections what
which was super interesting especially
because a lot of people a lot of people believed
the story or wanted to believe the story to
despite several clues that there are in the
documentary is one of the
characteristics of the false documentary
that gives clues about their own facility
falsehood
it’s not about cheating but in spite of
that many people ate the story and
they even started looking for the books
in the bookstores of the city I
they called desperate from the
major bookstores to tell me oiec
how do we go to for
convince them to pay for this
people was not a problem even for
the bookstores when I told them not this
type no no no no people want
I did not know how to react they thought
finally a problem and with the booksellers
luckily the movie
then it came out weak and it ‘s available
in divided and clarifies a bit the subject
but a little the idea as I said no
it’s with this kind of work it’s not about
to deceive the public but rather
to invite him to a kind of game and and
stimulate a little more a viewer
critical
a spectator who does not accept everything
what is presented to you just because it is
presented in a format linked to the
objective with works like the documentary
then these these breaks are what
what interests me now in the cinema
no and now the movie also had a
important travel through festivals that
a little bit for me not a month ago in the
bafici is a film festival
independent of buenos aires one of the
most important of the region
where the movie got a recognition
important prize and
somehow a year after
have premiered it closes a little the
cycle of movie exhibition by
another side is still alive through the
bid and as I said they can not acquire
in your favorite stores some hopefully
I still think I have a little more
weather
he read them you read the last thing he wants
is that I can tell you is about me
new project a movie that
we signed in February of this year and that
It is already a fiction but inspired by
historical facts again is not like
the constant
you could say my work in this case
the armed movements of the 80s
for me it’s the story of the
I meet in between two friends of ex
schoolmates lifelong
about 12 years after graduates who
have seen us in times and
they meet by chance at the exit of
a movie theater in panama city and they start
to talk and expensive have taken roads
completely different does not give us to
work banking and is in Panama for
business not always lawful and the other
he appears as a journalist but in
reality is part of alfaro lives
fuck and they are organizing a
just that position in jeans but
He left it there leave it there for history
that they see the movie and rather they
I wanted to tell you about the way
production that this project had that
I also believe that it is relevant for the
The current moment of Ecuadorian cinema was
a fight is a movie that the
beginning was conceived as a
very small and very feasible movie
filming has few few characters
occasions and many dialogues then the
we filmed it in a very short period
for a movie for a feature film
of fiction that is
that was seven days and the interesting thing about
all this what can be shared is
what and I think it’s important
as I said or relevant to talk about
this kind of thing because there are no longer
resources to make films that were made
a time are not very clear at all
case but also with the movie
we had an alternative scheme of
production in the sense that
we manage an associative scheme with the
technical team not receiving a salary
but they have a percentage I thank them
a lot for having listened to my thousands of
stories about my stories
[Applause]
”
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