Karoly, Christy and Tony are working on a film about their lives, focusing on their families, culture, and community, Cantagallo. On Friday the four of us sat on Christy’s bed, which we’ve dubbed La Oficina, the group tried to imagine what they could call such a project. Christy offered up 3 Historias Diferentes (3 Different Stories), which sparked a discussion about whether their stories were different or the same. In the videos they had just recorded, in which Christy and Tony shared their own personal experiences, similar tales were told. After all, Karoly remarked, they live in the same community, and their families all came to Lima from the same region of the Amazon. They are all Shipibo.
In that tension—between the individual and the collective—lies the beauty of the collaborative process that has emerged among these three over the last several months. Each has had a turn both behind and in front of the camera and microphone, working together to represent their community in sounds and images—to emphasize the elements that unite its inhabitants and bind their stories together. The particularities of their own stories—and the multiplicity of realities in Cantagallo—shine through in each of their strong, distinctive voices, as they explore their relationships to the land they inhabit, and the land where they come from.
In that tension—between the individual and the collective—lies the beauty of the collaborative process that has emerged among these three over the last several months. Each has had a turn both behind and in front of the camera and microphone, working together to represent their community in sounds and images—to emphasize the elements that unite its inhabitants and bind their stories together. The particularities of their own stories—and the multiplicity of realities in Cantagallo—shine through in each of their strong, distinctive voices, as they explore their relationships to the land they inhabit, and the land where they come from.
Here are two small pieces of their exciting work-in-progress: