Through female eyes: reframing Peru on screen

In July 2011, a roundtable was held at the fifteenth annual Film Festival in Lima on the topic of women in Peruvian cinema, in celebration of the apparent upsurge in the number of female filmmakers emerging from Peru over the previous decade. The event included six women who had produced short and feature films on a diverse range of topics, in documentary and fiction form. Hosted by acclaimed director Josué Méndez, whose own films have included strong roles for women in front of and behind the camera, the occasion acknowledged a significant shift in the demographic landscape of Peruvian cinema in terms of the role of women as filmmakers in Peru since the turn of the century. Compared with the relative paucity of Peruvian women in directorial roles until early in the new millennium, it should be noted that a fifth of the 39 fiction and documentary features slated for release during 2014-15 in a round-up by critic Lazlo Rojas were directed by women. Commentators such as Claudia Salazar Jiménez, Peruvian writer and founder of a biennial festival of Peruvian cinema in New York, have also remarked that there seem to be several characteristics pertaining to a higher level of skills, more varied experience and broader, including international, professional networks that are shared by this so-called ‘new’ generation of female filmmakers from Peru as compared to their predecessors. Such observers also point out that these directors have benefitted from a much higher level of technical training, with access to a more sophisticated set of equipment, benefactors and knowledge about funding schemes in part because most have studied at postgraduate level overseas. In common with the earlier pioneers, they also share an interest in developing their own personal vision and innovative style and focus on female characters from a range of classes, cultures and generations that otherwise tend to be neglected by most Peruvian feature cinema. They have all - much like their male counterparts - also shared the hardships that stem from a lack of adequate and sustainable financial support from government-led initiatives, which has led to them having to raise and invest private sources into the production of their films. Moreover, some of the most celebrated feature films made by women from Peru of recent years, such as Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa (2006) and La teta asustada/Milk of Sorrow (2009), Las malas intenciones/Bad Intentions by Rosario García-Montero (2011) and Climas by Enrica Pérez (2014), have been supported by some of the most prestigious transnational funding schemes