Susana Baca - Memoria Viva

Peru/Belgium 2003, 54 min, English subtitles

“Baca captures history, even as she transcends it,” writes Rolling Stone about the singer’s work. In following Susana Baca’s path, this documentary traces the lines of Afro-Peruvian history. The music of the black communities she visits, the songs she dedicates to them, and the dances she joins in become the living memory – the memoria viva – to which she has devoted herself for decades. This portrait of the artist is rounded out by footage from studio rehearsals and, of course, major concerts.

Followed by:
Pacific Short Film Program
presented by Lakino - Latin American Film Festival Berlin
60 Min, OmE

Memorias del Viento

Chile 2011, D: Katherina Harder Sacre, 18 min, OmE
Rafael Egaña (38) is going blind. Along with the viewer, he goes through the images that his father, a passionate photographer, has collected over the past 50 years. Each image represents a particular memory but what happens to them when a person can no longer see them? Do they disintegrate along with the visible world or do they become clearer when that person can no longer generate new images?

Marina, La esposa del pescador
Columbia 2009, D: Carlos Hernandez, 13 min, OmE
Marina, the wife of a fisherman on the Colombian coast, wakes up one day from a dream with a sense of foreboding and an urge to change her life completely. She sets off in a small boat to find a way to heal herself and the world. The film stands for all the victims of the war in Colombia, a war that is slowly killing the country, day by day.

Marea
Mexico 2008, D: Hatvey Viveros, 14 min, OmE
The 60-year-old Chico lost his wife in a fishing accident. Ever since, he has combed the beach for even the tiniest trace of her. He finds and adopts a crab that more or less serves as a metaphor for himself. One day the crab dies in its cage – along with the last of Chico’s hope.

Olas Negras
Chile 2011, D: Geraldine Guardia, 7 min, OmE
The 2010 tsunami in Chile left behind deep scars – in the memories of the victims and in the places where the disaster struck.