Memory and hope in Latin American indigenous cinema
A study of Eriberto Gualinga’s work
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26422/aucom.2026.1503.suzKeywords:
cinema, indigenous peoples, Sarayaku, memory, social strugglesAbstract
This article presents a reflection on the role of indigenous film production, driven by the Latinamerican epistemology of popular communication and focusing on the work of Eriberto Gualinga Montalvo, a member of the Kichwa Indigenous People of Sarayaku (Ecuador). The analysis focusses on the evolution of Gualinga Montalvo’s narrative, represented in three films–two already completed, Soy Defensor de la Selva (2003) and Helena de Sarayaku (2022), and the third in post-production, La Ruta de la Sal (2025). Additionally to a detailed review of the three productions, this analysis incorporated segments of interviews with 14 members of Sarayaku undertaken during a visit to the community. The results underline the centrality and at the same time the diversity of roles played by memory in indigenous film production. This feature speaks to needs of social struggles led by these communities while it also creates a unique audiovisual language. These findings demonstrate the relevance of the popularization of the indigenous ecological perspective for the establishment of an intercultural dialogue and the revision of the relationships between humanity and nature with accent to hope.
Downloads
References
Bermúdez A., P., y Uzendoski, M. A. (2018). Kukama Runa: Polyphonic aesthetics in cine comunitario among the Napo Runa of Amazonian Ecuador. Anthropology and Humanism, 43(1), 74–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/anhu.12197
Córdova, A. (2011). Estéticas enraizadas: Aproximaciones al video indígena en América Latina. Comunicación y Medios, (24), 81–107. https://doi.org/10.5354/rcm.v0i24.19895
De Celis Pastor, S. R. (2014). El cine documental ecuatoriano contemporáneo: Tradiciones, horizontes y rupturas. DOC On-line. Revista Digital de Cinema Documentário, (16), 32–44. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5362854
Ferreira de Almeida, A. (2015). Política e estética na comunicação popular: Um estudo sobre os vídeo-documentários Grito dos Excluídos da Associação Rede Rua. In C. M. Peruzzo & M. A. Campagnoli Otre (Eds.), Comunicação popular, comunitária e alternativa no Brasil: Sinais de resistência e de construção da cidadania (pp. 128–150). Universidade Metodista de São Paulo.
Freire, P. (1992). Pedagogia da esperança: Um reencontro com a pedagogia do oprimido. Paz e Terra.
Galindo, B. (2025). Visualizing lithium extraction as the decapitation of Mother Salt in Cartier and Longo's En el nombre del litio (2021). Bulletin of Latin American Research, 44(3), 248–262. https://doi.org/10.1111/blar.70014
Grainge, P. (2003). Introduction: Memory and popular film. In P. Grainge (Ed.), Memory and popular film (pp. 1–20). Manchester University Press.
Gualinga Montalvo, E. (Director). (2003). Sachata Kishipichik Mani: Soy defensor de la selva [Film].
Gualinga Montalvo, E. (2022). Communication and hope: Producing audiovisual from the perspective of indigenous peoples. In A. C. Suzina y T. Tufte (Eds.), Freire and the perseverance of hope: Exploring communication and social change (pp. 57–58). Institute of Network Cultures.
Gualinga Montalvo, E. (Director y productor). (2022). Helena de Sarayaku [Film].
Gumucio Dagron, A. (1984). Cine, historia y memoria popular. Chasqui. Revista Latinoamericana de Comunicación, 12, 13–15. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=5791471
Gumucio Dagron, A. (2014). El cine comunitario en América Latina y el Caribe. FES Comunicación.
León, C. (2016). Video indígena, autoridad etnográfica y alter-antropología. Maguaré, 30(2), 17–45. https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/maguare/article/view/66911
Lusnich, A. L., y Morettin, E. (2020). El cine y la memoria: Formas de producción y dimensiones históricas. Fotocinema, (20), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.24310/Fotocinema.2020.v20i1.7587
Magallanes-Blanco, C. (2015). Talking about our mother: Indigenous videos on nature and the environment. Communication, Culture & Critique, (8), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1111/cccr.12084
Magallanes-Blanco, C. (2022). Communication from a Latin American Indigenous perspective. In Oxford encyclopedia of communication. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.1295
Martínez Suárez, Y., & Agra Romero, M. X. (2019). Nuevos sujetos, nuevas narrativas: la Naturaleza y el Pueblo de Sarayaku. Eikasia. Revista de Filosofía, 89, 231–264.
Mata, M. C. (2023). Indisciplinada: Textos reunidos (1980-2022). FES-Comunicación.
Mignolo, W. D. (2007). La idea de América Latina: La herida colonial y la opción decolonial (S. Jawerbaum y J. Barba, trads.). Gedisa.
Muenala Pineda, S. A. (2018). Experiencias y propuestas audiovisuales desde los pueblos y nacionalidades del Ecuador. Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Maestría en Estudios de la Cultura. https://repositorio.uasb.edu.ec/handle/10644/6180
Peruzzo, C. M. (2022). Pedagogia da comunicação popular e comunitária nos movimentos sociais. Sulina.
Romero Albán, K. D. (2010). El cine de los otros: La representación de "lo indígena" en el cine documental ecuatoriano. Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales, Programa de Comunicación. https://repositorio.flacsoandes.edu.ec/handle/10469/2396
Sanjinés, J. (1984). Cine latinoamericano o el lugar de la memoria. Chasqui. Revista Latinoamericana de Comunicación, 12, 24–27. https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=4338117
Sarayaku. (2018). The living forest declaration. Kawsak Sacha. https://www.kawsaksacha.org
Schiwy, F. (2008). Indigenous media and the end of the Lettered City. Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies, 17(1), 23–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/13569320801950674
Siles, I., Gómez Cruz, E., y Ricaourte, P. (2024). Hacia una teoría popular del algoritmo. In A. C. Suzina y J. Vega-Casanova (Eds.), La comunicación popular en Nuestramérica: Visiones y horizontes (pp. 167–184). FES.
Soler, C. (2017a). Enfocar nuestra trinchera: El surgimiento del cine indígena en la Provincia del Chaco (Argentina). Folia Historica del Nordeste, (28), 71–97. https://doi.org/10.30972/fhn.0281777
Soler, C. (2017b). Media-médium: Entre la etnografía y el cine comunitario. Universitas, 15(27), 171–186. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/4761/476152665009/html/
Suzina, A. C. (2023a). Uma floresta, um rio e muitas vozes: Comunicação e ativismos na Comunidade de São Pedro de Arapiuns, na Amazônia Brasileira. In I. Babo (Ed.), Comunicação e ativismos na comunidade: Práticas comunicacionais, ativismos e redes (pp. 145–168). Socicom.
Suzina, A. C. (2023b). Towards a circular theory of communication: The case of the Wayusa ritual of the traditional Kichwa people of Sarayaku. Journal of Alternative & Community Media, 8(2), 145–167. https://doi.org/10.1386/jacm_00124_1
Suzina, A. C. (2025). Comunicación popular en América Latina: Una epistemología del Sur. In L. Araya Jiménez (Ed.), Común: Comunicación organizacional en clave comunitaria (pp. 19–40). Centro de Investigación en Comunicación (CICOM), Universidad de Costa Rica.
Suzina, A. C., y Vega-Casanova, J. (Orgs.). (2024). La comunicación popular en Nuestramérica: Visiones y horizontes. FES.
Svampa, M. (2019). Las fronteras del neoextractivismo en América Latina: Conflictos socioambientales, giro ecoterritorial y nuevas dependencias. Maria Sibylla Merian Center.
Valim, A. (2020). A comunicação popular na construção e preservação da memória das lutas populares no Brasil (décadas de 1970 e 1980). Núcleo Piratininga de Comunicação.
Vanegas-Toala, Y. V. (2020). Comunicación y el giro ecoterritorial en red campo-ciudad. In N. Medranda-Morales y N. Valbuena-Bedoya (Eds.), Comunicación y ciudad: Lenguajes, actores y relatos (pp. 123–142). Abya-Yala.
Vanegas-Toala, Y. V., y León, C. (2025). Cine eco-territorial, memoria y extractivismo en la Amazonía ecuatoriana: Análisis sobre Allpamanda (2023) del colectivo Tawna. Comunicación y Medios, 34(51), 65–77. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-1529.2025.76553
Viteri Gualinga, C. (2002). Visión indígena del desarrollo en la Amazonía. Polis, 3, 1–7. http://journals.openedition.org/polis/7678
Viveiros de Castro, E. (2010). Metafísicas caníbales: Líneas de la antropología postestructural. Katz.
Werá, K., Kadiwel, I., & Cohn, S. (Eds.). (2023). Ailton Krenak. Azougue Editorial.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Ana Cristina Suzina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
The authors retain the copyright and guarantee the journal the right to be the first publication of the work. In case that a translation of the article already published in Austral Comunicación can be published in another journal, it is requested to record the original publication in the translated version.
The license used is CC BY-NC-SA, which allows sharing (copying and redistributing the material in any medium and format) and adapting (remixing, transforming and building on the material) under the following terms: attribution (acknowledge authorship) and non-commercial (the material cannot be used for commercial purposes). Update: February 1, 2022.
Austral Comunicación allows the author (s) to retain the publication rights without restrictions.
