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Film short abstract:

In a brief documentary, anthropologist Magdalena Zegarra Chiappori provides a glimpse into the precarious lives of poor older Peruvians whose experiences mirror those of countless elders around the world.

Film long abstract:

La Merced is a deteriorated landscape, a precarious topography. How does one—old, poor, sick, and abandoned by family—grow old amidst emotional deprivation, loneliness, and institutionalization? This documentary is an attempt to elucidate how one of the most invisible, unmapped, and understudied populations of Peruvian society, the elderly urban poor of Lima, come to terms with this process. Growing Old on the Margins tells the story of how elderly residents in the La Merced shelter struggle to hold on to life, render their aging experience meaningful, and, finally, wait for death. At La Merced, destitution, oblivion, and postponement weigh heavily on people’s everyday lives. Uncertainty and a rumbling instability is the dramatic context where those who lack family networks, care, and economic security are endlessly embracing new tactics of endurance and resistance as they grow old. What are the limitations and possibilities of remaining intelligible actors at the end of life in an environment of perpetual loss, destitution, and abandonment? How do people give sense to their last days of existence and endure life in such an inhospitable place? In other words, what sustains these persons in the world? What do they cling to in order to live? Maybe, this short film can offer an answer to these questions because these images speak of the ways the elderly in Lima—and, probably, in other parts of the Global South—grow old enveloped in absence and scarcity, adversity and vulnerability, but also signal a relentless existential struggle for endurance.

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Film short abstract:

Kitchwa midwives from Amupakin centre meet in an early morning Wayusa ceremony. They tell stories and dreams, dance and sing. The film takes a multispecies, sensorial approach, attentive to the rich animacy of the rainforest human lives are entangled with, to illustrate a story of becoming shaman.

Film long abstract:

The Amupakin centre in Ecuador is a community of ten Kitchwa women who practice traditional medicine and midwifery. Their knowledge sees physical and spiritual healing as inseparable and their power is drawn from the more-than-human world of the selva, rainforest. In an early morning Guayusa ceremony, members of a family or community wake up at dawn to sit around the fire and share dreams, events, stories and music. The film tells the story of Mama Maruja and how she was made aware of her shaman powers by a Boa she encountered in the rainforest. Starting from the story of this encounter, the film uses images and sounds to illustrate the importance of more-than-human connections, as the midwives’ knowledge and actions are conferred, determined and limited by the more-than-human animal spirits that Kitchwa live in close proximity to. Land Full of Boa uses a form of sensorial essay-film montage to keep this world of multispecies agency and personhood present while narrating Maruja’s story.

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Film short abstract:

A dominant discourse on cervical cancer focuses on access to care, overshadowing other critical issues. I reflect on my experience with the disease, exploring gynecological violence, reductionist explanations, and the politics of blame, while highlighting transformative knowledge through art.

Film long abstract:

A dominant discourse surrounding cervical cancer currently frames it within the context of access to screening and vaccination. Indeed, over 80% of cases occur in countries where access to care is severely limited, if not nonexistent; while in the so-called Global North, the highest incidence rates and most advanced-stage diagnoses disproportionately affect the most vulnerabilized groups.

I argue that this exclusive focus on access to preventive and healthcare services risks diverting attention from other critical issues. Drawing on experimental autoethnography and kaleidoscopic reflexivity (Fortun, 2014), this short film reflects on my personal experience with cervical cancer in a context where such access was secured. I explore issues such as gynaecological violences and micro violences, reductionist causative explanations of the disease, and the politics of blame that can generate or perpetuate suffering among those with a cervix. Additionally, I consider how autoethnographic and artistic practices can contribute to inhabiting alternative social possibilities, fostering knowledge that may be both relevant and transformative.

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Film short abstract:

The film is a reflexive story of a collaborative film project. It tells about a group of 14- year-old international boys in a Finnish town. It follows their freetime activities; the good times they have together and their social interactions with each other and with the researcher.

Film long abstract:

Temporary labour migration of skilled professionals is increasing in various parts of the world. Often, such expatriates are accompanied by their children but very little is known of their views and experiences. In her ethnographic research project, Korpela investigated the views and experiences of such children and youth in Finland. During her fieldwork, she filmed a group of 14-year-old boys on their free time in a Finnish town. The film is a reflexive story of this collaborative film project. The film tells about the boys’ freetime activities; the good times they have together and their social interactions with each other and with the researcher. The film also shows the boys’ reflections on their lives and experiences as “foreigners” in a Finnish town.