From Mar del Plata
Every year, the Mar del Plata Film Festival it happens as a celebratory date for cinema in particular and culture in general; enabled for “connoisseurs” -cinephiles, people linked to the industry and production, many and many young people, as can be seen in the long lines and rooms full of functions- but also as a meeting of great popular roots In this city. What happened on Saturday at the beautiful Teatro Colón will be remembered as one of the most festive and exciting moments among all the festive and exciting moments that this festival is having. The presentation of the documentary we will be millionswhich covers the life and struggle of Evo Morales and of the Bolivian people, with the presence of the protagonist in one of the boxes, of Leon Gieco welcoming with their songs in the preview of the function, as in an intimate rock, and troupes of Bolivian residents as the end of the party, it was an intense synthesis of this spirit of the festival, a moment that infected enthusiasm and emotions.
“It was magical, epic”evokes Gieco the next day in dialogue with Page 12still immersed in the postcards that he reviews almost with disbelief. “They made me cry”said Evo Morales in the theater after seeing the film. Diego Briata and Santiago Vivacqua directing, Eugenia Ferrer, Fernanda Ruiz and Giselle Rodríguez producingonly part of an extensive work team for this collective realization, took his words -and the emotion that the Bolivian leader indeed revealed- as a special compliment among all those who received the film: it is known that “Evo doesn’t cry”.
“We only saw him taken by emotion when he handed over the band to Alvaro García Linera, in the first assumption,” they tell Page 12 based on the hundreds and hundreds of hours of archive that they looked at to make the movie. “To see him so excited now, it was very exciting in turn.”
He was not the only one won by tears in an auditorium that celebrated the passages of the documentary with applause and cheers, or with whistles for certain characters who also played a role in this story, such as Mauricio Macri and the Ecuadorian Lenin Moreno.
The struggle of a people
The idea of we will be millions, a Grupo Octubre production, began after the recording of the return of Evo Morales to his homeland after an exact year of exile, in what became known as “the caravan of the return.” He grew up in the making of the documentary by tracing the origin of that leader and that fight, he went back through the “Five centuries of the same”.
To the incidental music by León Gieco and Gustavo Santaolalla is added “Mama Coca”, the powerful final theme which has lyrics by Evo himself, music by both composers and rapping by Miss Boliviawho also came to the presentation.
“We got Evo to rap, and we even made him a partner of Sadaic!”León releases in the presentation, and the tone is jococo, but it is strict reality.
The Minister of Culture, Tristan Bauerthe directors of Page 12, Hugo Soriani and Ernesto Tiffembergthe owner of the October Group, Victor Santamariadeputy Hugo Yaskythe Secretary of Culture of Misiones, Joselo Schuap (also a singer-songwriter, who as such shared songs with Gieco in the previous one), the Buenos Aires Undersecretary for Cultural Policies, Victoria Onetto, the Secretary of Communication of the CTA, Carlos Girottiwere some of those present at the screening.
From Bolivia to the planet
Among the virtues of the film are its developers unpublished film records: bloody images of the coup, others of a young Evo union leader who was already talking about nationalizing natural resources as a strategic priority. “I don’t know where they got these images from, they’ve been doing intelligence on me!” Evo jokes after seeing them.
“We are the heirs of history, of those times in the colony that the film shows. But we learned something: not to divide ourselves and not to surrender,” he tells people. “Today our identity and diversity is our wealth. That is why I say that we have to go from a Bolivia and a plurinational America, to a plurinational planet“, harangue.
“We show that another Bolivia is possible. Seeing all this that we have gone through, what the film shows, which has made me cry, it is clear that The coup d’état has not only been from the gringo to the Indian, but to an economic model“, he concludes.
17 years from Alcarajo
“This film reflects the heroic struggle of a people and the leadership of an exceptional leader”, Bauer highlighted in the presentation. And he recalled the coincidence of strong symbolic weight: 17 years ago, in this same city, the historic “No al Alca” summit was held, a moment that also appears reflected in a brief fragment of the film: “I remember that Evo was there, Emir Kusturicathe great Diego Armando Maradonawe arrived on the Tren del Alba and here the Alca was told, ‘to hell’,” the minister recalled.
Santamaría highlighted “the pride and surprise to see the final result, which exceeded all our expectations, in every way,” from the main producer of the documentary, which was later joined by the Brazilian Opera Mundi. He also highlighted “the long road that remains for a film of this level after this exciting presentation,” which has already confirmed his participation in the Havana Film Festival next February.
Hugo Soriani remembered the days of exile of Evo Morales in Buenos Airesthe talks they had at the time when an Argentine team joined the Bolivian campaign for the MAS, in full dictatorship of Jeanine Añez. “I’ll never forget the hope and strength that he transmitted to all of us in the darkest days of his exile. We were going to encourage him and he ended up encouraging us. He told us: I’m going to return, and sooner than you imagine. It seemed impossible. But he complied: came back and was millions”reviewed.
The phrase that the leader of the Aymara rebellion Tupac Katari uttered before four horses dismembered him is the one that gives the film its name: ‘I will return and I will be millions’. The film remembers her while going through history from colonial oppression, Bolivia’s place last century as the second poorest country in the region, to the transformations of the governments of Evo Morales, including the nationalization of hydrocarbons and the decision to locally industrialize, and not just extract, lithium.
“You can be a progressive president and you can be idealistic. But to be a revolutionary today you have to be anti-imperialist. That is the problem we have today in Latin America“, Evo is heard saying.
The celebration
“A long time ago, when we were imagining this film at Hugo’s (Soriani) house – which we call ‘Vieytes’ soap shop’, because that’s where all the ideas come from – and there was still nothing from the film, I I had a dream: to include Bolivian musicians or dancers in a presentation, celebrating the film”, recalls Gieco. “And it finally happened, not because we programmed it, but because the stars wanted it that way. A group of Bolivian artists went to receive Evo at the airport, and from there they came walking! to the theater. Since the tickets were completely sold out and there were a lot of them, they couldn’t get in. But the producer told them to please wait, because they could let them in at the end. They didn’t just get in, they did with their music, with their party, they went up on stage and danced with Evo. And so it happened, alone and magical, this ending that I dreamed of”.
The musicians and musicians are of the Comparsa Tupiza, of the Comparsa Juventud Norchicheña; They are Bolivian residents of Mar del Plata and they arrived with their flags and typical costumes. “We were sorry not to be able to see the film with so many people there but it doesn’t matter, we will go to another show. We saw brother Evo for the first time in our lives, we shared with him. Wherever he goes we will follow him and we will take care of him how he takes care of us He is one of us“, they tell Page 12.
magic and epic
“I discovered a lot of technical details, moments that remain fixed in the middle of the chest. The close-ups, the slow cameras, when Evo throws the earth and begins “When the angels travel”, the last theme so festive…”, Gieco continues to praise the film. And getting excited because “it was a magical and epic night, and that the Bolivians finally entered singing and celebrating, was an unforgettable moment. Now they should make a movie just about what happened last night!”
“This collective work is enormous, I feel honored to have been able to actively participate in this presentation, which was a birth. I appreciate the generosity of León, Bauer, and all the colleagues who made me part of this movement,” says Miss Bolivia. “The pulse of the collective and the community was very noticeable in the presentation, it made everything very powerful. And together with the public, who was so committed and enthusiastic, I was able to see a high-quality and very honest work.”
A people protecting their leader
Some of the Bolivian exiles in Argentina also traveled to witness the screening. Among them, Cecilia Urquieta, current counselor of the Bolivian mission to the OAS. she tells Page 12 that seeing the film now gives him “a lot of mixed feelings”. “Memories of exile appear, of the violent way in which we have had to leave, almost with our clothes on, and also of the loving way in which the Argentine people and social organizations have received us here.”
“The film fully shows why the things that have happened have happened, why we are fighting, and why the figure of Evo is so important to our country, why we feel we have to take care of it,” he reflects.
Tania Sánchez, a reference to feminist movements, is another of those exiles. “The film allows us to see the political project that has been raised in Bolivia, beyond the fact that it has been represented in a person. And it even shows how depatriarchalization has been a fundamental axis of the Bolivian process,” she says.
Melany Wanca is a “pollera woman” who lives in Jujuy, she was assisting Bolivians who crossed the border at risk of their lives during the coup, and now she came to celebrate the film. “Seeing the documentary is to feel the same pain again, to remember the violence, but also to confirm that we can be reborn from that pain. Remembering makes us stronger“, He says.
“Evo is a very important figure for Latin America and the moment we are living,” he tells him at the end of the projection Hugo Yasky a Page 12. “The film moved me, I felt that the message is that of a people protecting their leader. And I thought of Cristina. And I thought that our country also has to carry out this epic.”