Atucucho 1988, towards a cinema-minga

emancipatory effects of a collective audiovisual production in its filmmakers

Abstract

In 1988 a group of families occupied a former ranch owned by the Ecuadorian state to conform Atucucho, a neighborhood in the northwest side of Quito, inhabited nowadays by more than 20,000 residents. To commemorate their thirtieth birthday, a short film was produced, in which the first moments of the occupation were reenacted. This article makes use of the discussions around indigenous media and communal filmmaking to walk through the collective production of Atucucho 1988: handmade and elucidate its effects among the participants around their social relations, historic memory, representation, and cultural imaginary.