How do you decide which films to include in a film festival?
Surya
“An open call to all indigenous filmmakers as well as for films made in collaboration with an indigenous community. As a curator, one is overwhelmed by the amount of films about indigenous people as compared to films by indigenous people, so we have included all submissions and programmed them appropriately.”
Shinta
“First and the most important is that the film should be directed or produced by an indigenous, or have an indigenous as one of the main crew. This is very essential because indigenous people have been put into a frame made by people in the filmmaking industry and portrayed to meet the need of this industry for a long time, and it is something that we as indigenous filmmakers want to break through. Other criteria is based on the target audience, for example, it can be to strengthen a grass root movement and for self-empowering [inside the community], or for raising awareness [for the dominant culture] and also raise fund to support the indigenous filmmakers.”
Ivan
“In Jumara last year 169 films entered, some had no relation to the indigenous issues, but with human rights that were relevant, because Jumara not only wants to be dedicated to indigenous films but also that indigenous people have a presence in non-indigenous issues. We want the cinema to be part of the discussion, the gathering and the dialogue between the indigenous peoples.”
David
“If we all committed ourselves to film in equal conditions, Latin American cinema would be a women’s cinema, because there are more male filmmakers. So we give 50% preference to films made by women, and of that group 70% are indigenous, and the other 50% of the showcase are all other films. It is very hard for an indigenous women filmmaker to make films, so we have to screen their films.”