Sachamanta is shown in selected movie theaters and at festivals. On the other hand, every community center, each seminar room, every classroom and any youth club can be turned into a cinema. So if you want to show the film yourself, just get yourself a projector and a monitor and write us an email to Kameradisten@gmx.de. We’ll send you a link to download or we will send you a DVD of the movie.

You are fluent in another language than German, Spanish or English? Well, consider helping us to translate this site into as many languages ​​as possible. Please write us: Kameradisten@gmx.de.

Sachamanta was made possible by individual initiative and donations. For public relations work we still need helping hands and open wallets. If you want to support the film then write us an email with your ideas and suggestions to Kameradisten@gmx.de.

Region of Santiago del Estero, April, a summer night in 2010: I saw the courageous people dancing. They danced to their favorite music from their radios. Bare feet swirling dust. Hands find hands. Lights flash through the darkness. I thought that people always change the place in which they dance. They take over this place. A dry lawn can be a ballroom, nine boards can be a stage. I thought that people also change the places in which they work. A barren wasteland can turn into a field. A swamp turns into rich soil.. They put sweat equity into their own homes, which may not be taken from them. Today they dance. Tomorrow they’ll fight.

For over 20 years the peasant and indigenous communities in the region of Santiago del Estero fight against land theft and disenfranchisement. When the big companies steal someone’s land, they all gather together to break down the newly erected fence. If one of them is locked up in jail, their fellow campesinos all come at once, demanding their companiero’s release. The struggle of the campesinos is bearing fruit. Through their perseverance, they have become a force in the country – a powerful force with five voices: five rural radio stations that allow the uncensored exchange of news over the vastness of the country. The radio stations provide a sense of community and of course they also broadcast the music that the campesinos love.

When I saw the brave people dancing, laughing and kissing, I thought to myself about how it is about the same questions, all over the world. Why is the law not on the side of the dancers? Why doesn’t that dance floor belong to those who improvised it? Why do the fields not belong to those who sow them? Why are the banks of the West bursting with the wealth others created?

For over twenty years, the peasants and indigenous peoples of the region of Santiago del Estero not only know the answer to these questions but live that answer on a daily basis. The answer is: There is has never been justice unless it has been fought for. The people in the region of Santiago del Estero have not only changed places, but transformed themselves in their struggle. Out of despondency grew courage. Fear turned into hope. Justice was no longer just a dream, but an endeavor.

The documentary Sachamanta tells a story of the fulfillment of this task. The film will be presented at numerous festivals, distributed on DVD, and shown, last but not least, in Northern Argentina. The trailer can be seen here.

In some ways Sachamanta is not a typical documentary: The film’s concept was not clearly set in stone before shooting, but was developed as we watched the raw footage; The interviews were partly created by the interviewees themselves; The film’s story is told four times in different ways, without repetition.

All of this was intentional and should be explained. In addition to conducting interviews in the traditional way during the first set of interviews,  we conducted a second set of interviews using unconventional method of interviewing people, in a group setting. In all four radio stations, the station operators interviewed eachother using a catalog of standardized questions. Two containers were placed on the table. The first container held a list with the names of the workshop participants, and the second one contained the standardized questions. Next, two names were drawn from the first container. The first person drawn took over the camera work, the second person was asked the question found in the second container. (After this person initially responded to the question, the rest were free to to answer the question from their standpoint.) After that, the camera was passed on to the next person, the one who had answered the question first, and it was the next person down the line’s turn to draw a new question from the containers.

The recurring questions in the film created a thematic link between the different radio stations as well as a comon thread in the footage.

The film is consists of several chapters which highlight the main themes of the film: land, the rights of the peasant and indigenous people, the need to organize, the structure of their organization MoCaSe-Via Campesina, the radio station, and the role of the children in the movement as well as in the radio stations. The thematic link described above made it possible to introduce the different radio stations without the risking of putting more emphasis or weight on one over another. This also prevented repetition. This method also highlighted key issues of the movie independent of time and space, while maintaining the suspense throughout the film.