Diary
In a buzz of creativity
// Ariella Orbach
The
two final weeks of the 6th Wapikoni Mobile stopover at the Mapuche
School of Filmmaking and Communication of the Aylla Rewe Budi flew by in a buzz
of creativity! Fifteen youths took part in the training offered by Wapikoni,
which came to its end last Friday with a big community event.
Collective
creation, the filmmaking method practiced by the Mapuche School of Filmmaking
and Communication, is an exercise in complementarity. Each young participant
contributes to a collective project according to her or his interests,
curiosities, talents and skills. Some participants jumped at the chance to
learn animation techniques, creating figures out of plasticine and using the stop motion technique, contributing
their drawing talents, or learning the basics of advanced animation with the
software After Effects. Those with a more poetic penchant worked together to
write a narration filled with symbolism or to select images to illustrate the
film with their beauty. Some worked with admirable concentration to subtitle
content spoken in the indigenous language; others offered to get up at 5:00 am
to go to the beach and film jaw-dropping images at sunrise. Two young girls
dedicated themselves to practicing the complex pronunciation of Mapuzugun, the
Mapuche language, to deliver a moving narration. All this without mentioning
the fundamental participation of the Elders who shared their knowledge and
lived experiences, the translators who helped us subtitle the material to
Spanish and the families who welcomed our big production team into their homes,
who fed us, transported us and shared their daily lives with us. If you’ve
wondered why our credits are so long, you now have the answer!
This
collective, inspiring, admirable process resulted in a complex short film that addresses
the way the Mapuche-Lafkenche (people of the ocean) observe, perceive and enter
into a balanced relationship with the ocean. At the same time, the film
emphasizes the lived experiences of Elders as a source of indigenous ways of
life and, through visual and symbolic elements, speaks to the balance between
human and environment, male and female, Elder and youth, past and future. The young
filmmakers were also very interested in researching the story of several
families from their communities, whose genealogy was influenced by a historical
event: the shipwreck of a European boat on the Mapuche coast and the
integration of the surviving women into Mapuche society. A second short film
was made to give place to the telling of this event by two Elders, the result
of an oral research process led by the youth. This film also offered the
perfect opportunity for some participants to practice animation techniques to
re-create these events that took place in the 19th century.
On
February 12th, almost 70 people squeezed into an overflowing room to
watch the finished short films and encourage the young filmmakers. This
community screening demonstrated the continued interest of the families of the
Aylla Rewe Budi territory in the Mapuche Filmmaking School and the significance
of their support of the young participants’ creative process. The energy in the
room that night left us convinced that we will be back next year to continue
sharing with you the adventures of this incredible project!
The
training, coordination, research and logistics team,
Ariella, Juan, Iphigénie, Julio, Yvonne, Daniela, Silvia and Lihuen