Pachakuti

A film by Aliocha Imhoff & Kantuta Quirós
A project supported by ArTeC (Paris VIII University)
and in partnership with the AIAC laboratory (Paris VIII) and the Center Pompidou (FILM Department, curator Philippe-Alain Michaud, and the Hors-pistes Festival, dir. Géraldine Gomez)

The film Pachakuti (2024) features a fictional assembly, a conversation between mountain spirits and shadows of a historic assembly, inspired by transcripts of speeches made during the Bolivian Constituent Assembly of 2006-2009, which gave Pachamama (Mother Earth) access to the status of legal subject. This assembly is interpreted by non-actors from the Aymara scene and voices from the Bolivian diaspora.

Pachakuti is the episode 1 of season 2 of the series Les Impatients (2016-).

This film is freely inspired by interviews we conducted with key players on the Bolivian political, intellectual, artistic and poetic scene, and in particular with some of those who took part in the 2006-2009 Bolivian Constituent Assembly process (Roberto Aguilar Gomez, Roxana Zaconeta, Miriam Huacani Zapana, Ruben Arteaga, Pablo Solon, Roberto de la Cruz, Jhaquelin Davalos, Erwin Fher Masi Perez, Cesar Antezana / Flavia Lima). It is also based on the transcripts of the speeches made by the Constituent Assembly, archived by the Documentary Fund of the Constituent Assembly in La Paz, Bolivia. This archive documents the long process that led to the granting of legal status to the Pachamama (Mother Earth) in the Bolivian Constitution, thus becoming one of the first Constitutions along with Ecuador to grant this status to this non-human entity. Speeches by the movements Moviemento Ayra, Ayllus Nord Potosi, Concertación Nacional-Patria Insurgente, Movimiento al Socialismo, during the Vision País, Imaginaire et représentations, Droit de la Nature et Environnement workshops of the Constituante, speeches by Alvaro Garcia Linera, David Choquehuanca, Juan Zubieta, Carlos Villegas, and the work of Diego Landivar and Emilie Ramillien, Carlos Macusaya and Franck Poupeau also helped us to re-scenarize this diplomacy between “cosmologies that intended to live together”.

A fictitious assembly, a conversation between spirits and shadows of the historical assembly, is held in the Valle de los Animas (Valley of the Spirits). It is performed by non-actors from the Aymara and Quechua scenes and voices from the Bolivian diaspora (Jackeline Callisaya, Alberto Cruz, Richard Callisaya, Freddy Castro, Hernan Salcedo Quispe, Nirvana Duchen Aguilar Coarity, Loukass Thiago Aguilar Coarity, Rodrigo Margel Arce Condori, Helen Sonia Alvarado Gonzales, Adrian Rafael Calderon Braun, Dario Meza, Pedro Condori Huacano, Miguel Angel Cespedes, Mariana Nogales Paez, Eddy Coa, Allyson Silez, Emmanuel Marin Maturana, Carla Micaela Estrada Claura).

The film will premiere at the 6th Mardin Biennial 2024 (Turkey).

Scheduled screenings:

• July 26, 2024, Forum 2024, Relais Culture Europe, Cinéma Louxor, Paris
• October 10, 2024, ArTeC days, Archives Nationales, Pierrefitte
• October 16, 2024, Live in you Head, HEAD, Geneva