In 1992 Argentine artist Martín Weber began a project that would encompass three decades: to visit various Latin American countries and photograph individuals as they held up a small chalkboard on which they had written their hopes and dreams. Many years later, Weber revisited these people living in Argentina, Peru, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala, and Mexico to see if any of those dreams had been fulfilled.
The film’s opening - the first moments of a cockfight - foreshadows the answer to whether these people’s dreams have come true. These men and women have fought, struggled, and suffered, and they have both the physical and emotional scars to prove it. We know this even before we meet them on camera, having already observed their black-and-white photos, nondescript pictures that could have been taken in virtually any era. We can’t pinpoint precise decades or years because poverty and suffering transcend time.
What were these people’s hopes and dreams? Some of the chalkboard writings include such wishes as, “To see that my children are prepared to face the problems of unemployment,” “That there not be so much bloodshed,” and “That my parents might smile again.” During the film, we discover Amado, a Cuban shoe shiner who longed to be a poet. Amado wrote many poems, but when he drank, he tore them all up. Weber missed Amado by three months: The poet had taken ill and passed away in his bed, but his poverty-stricken community considers him a hero.
A shirtless young man with a heavy knife scar near his stomach wrote on his chalkboard, “My dream is to die.” We watch as the young man’s brother travels the dangerous streets of Colombia searching for a sibling whose dream may have become a reality.
These photographs are all snapshots of lives serving as starting points for the viewer. When we see these people on camera many years later, we hear their stories but must fill in the gaps for ourselves, imagining what their lives were like from the time they wrote down their hopes until Weber and his camera caught up with them again.
The sources of their suffering vary: poverty, oppressive political regimes, corrupt officials and law enforcement, abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Many suffer from multiple sources. These are not simply people we read about in newspapers or see briefly online, but rather real people we have witnessed progress from where they were in the hopes they embraced to where they are. We feel the yearning, pain, suffering, and in some cases the last vestiges of hope they retain.
We see tourists taking pictures of homeless people. We meet a man who cannot return to his home in El Salvador because gang members have vowed to kill him. A young girl is photographed with her dream of becoming a policewoman as a boy points a toy gun at her. “Human beings are exquisite,” a man in Brazil states. “They love and destroy at the same time.”
Map of Latin American Dreams is a stunning documentary, a chronicle of suffering, lament, and hopes unfulfilled. Yet the backdrop of many of these scenes includes moments of exquisite natural beauty, and breathtaking landscapes contrasted with corruption and ruin. Weber masterfully edits such scenes of disparity to create a visual document viewers will remember long after the film is over. Viewers may empathize with these men and women, but we may also ask ourselves in our own country, “Could this happen here?” or even “Does this happen here?”
What academic subjects would this film be suitable for?
Map of Latin American Dreams would be a valuable documentary resource for community colleges and universities offering classes in Latin American studies, sociology, and political science.
What kind of film collection would this title be suitable for?
Map of Latin American Dreams would be a valued DVD resource for film collections focusing on Latin American culture and politics, sociology, poverty, and oppression. With the appropriate public performance rights, the film could also fit into any unique library programs or events such as Hispanic Heritage Month.
Between 1992 and 2013 the Argentine artist, Martín Weber, photographed people in Latin America and asked them to write their dreams with chalk on a wooden board.
Decades later, he wondered if any of those wishes had been fulfilled. This film is a new journey in the search for the same people to give testimony from their lives. For the last 8 years, Martín has filmed in Argentina, Peru, Nicaragua, Cuba, Brazil, Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico. During his trip, he witnessed the economic, political, social and military violence that mark the continent.
Martín shows the consequences of migration and the degradation of the social fabric. His experiences reveal the fractures and gaps in the dreams portrayed and the struggle between hope and despair, between emigration and remaining home.
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FILM FESTIVALS & SPECIAL SCREENINGS
- Best Documentary Feature Seattle Latino Film Festival
- Best Documentary Toulouse Latin American Film Festival
- Best Mexican Documentary Feature Guanajuato Int’l Film Festival
- Jury Prize at Ismailia Film Festival
- Special Mention Semana De Cine De Lugo
- Best Int’l Documentary El Ícaro Festival Int’l de Cine en Centroamérica
- Jury Prize Brasília International Film Festival
- Winner Contemporary Contest Festival del Cinema Ibero-Latino Americano di Trieste
- Cinelatino Recontes du Toulouse
- The Bogota Independent Film Festival
- Festival de Cinema Latino-Americano de São Paulo
- Hong Kong International Documentary Film Festival
- Festival FILMAR en América Latina
- Oslo Films From The South Film Festival
- Festival Film Dokumenter
- The Florianópolis Audiovisual Mercosur Film Festival and Forum
- Philadelphia Latino Film Festival
- Censurados Film Festival
- Festival del Cinema Ibero-Latino Americano di Trieste
- Santo Domingo Global Film Festival
- Guayaquil International Film Festival
- Wellington Film Festival
THE FILMMAKER
Martín Weber is a multimedia artist. "Map of Latin American Dreams", his first film has won in 2020 Prix Documentaire CINÉLATINO/Toulouse and Menção Honrosa/BIFF. The film also received the support of Emcine/Mexico, Sørfond/Norway and INCAA/Argentina. In 2019 Weber received the International Award in Photography by CRAF, in 2018 the Magnum Foundation Fund and in 2016 the Grand Prize on Installations and Alternative Media in Argentina. He also received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation (1998), Prince Claus (2004), Silver Eye Award (2008), No Strings Foundation (2005), Hasselblad (2001/99'), The Klemm Foundation (1999), Fondo Nacional de las Artes (2016/14/96) and Patronage (2019/17/16/15/14). He participated in artist residencies at MAC and D21 (Santiago, Chile-2014), CPW (Woodstock-004), Light Work (Syracuse-2002), IASPIS (Stockholm-1998). Widely exhibited, his work was featured in books like “Map of Latin American Dreams” (2018) and “Echoes from the Interior” (2011).
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MAP OF LATIN AMERICAN DREAMS
Catalog # EPF16045 ● ISBN: 978-1-933724-85-0 ● UPC: 6-82086-16045-0 ● NTSC
92 Minutes ● Copyright 2020 ● Spanish, Portuguese, Quechua, English Subtitles
Click here to buy DVD: $29.95
Click here to buy DVD w/ Public Performance Rights: $250
Click here to buy DSL and DVD w/ Public Performance Rights: $375
For purchase orders, to book screenings and for other inquiries, please contact:
Larry Rattner - larry@epfmedia.com