Fifteen years ago, on Saturday, November 1, 2008, we filmed scenes live during the Todos Santos celebrations in a cemetery in El Alto, Bolivia, where reside the tombs of the martyrs of the 2003 Guerra del gas.
So many Bolivian friends and professionals participated in the filming of the fictitious buriel of Hochi, a character in my historical novel, Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace.
People were moved to participate in the making of this movie in order to honor their own experiences and the experiences of so many Bolivians during the U.S.-supported Bolivian government massacre of people peacefully protesting the proposed export of Bolivia's natural gas to Chile, where it would get processed and sold back to Bolivia as well as shipped to Mexico and California.
Los Sanganos de Sopocachi danced in the film. Los Heraldos from Ilave, Puno, Peru played panpipes, sikus, in the film.
My friends kept asking me when the film would come out. After a few years they stopped asking. But I kept working on it all this time. Filming more in a DIY studio in Portland, Oregon. Drawing lots and lots of drawings to supplement the story telling. Composing and improvising music with friends. Working with Bev Standish of Digital Elf Studios to clean up the audio of the dialog recorded in Portland, and editing most of the first section of the movie, as we sat side-by-side in front of her computer. (The first section of the movie is based on chapter one, "Dancing at the Blockade" of the book Lucy Plays Panpipes for Peace). Thank you, Bev!
And learning to edit, working for months with the brilliant, kind and patient people at Open Signal / Portland Community Media to complete the first section and edit the rest of the movie, add the soundtrack and more!
Yep, for 15 years I've working on this movie sometimes a little, and this year a lot. And now the 89-minute movie, Panpipes for Peace, is on YouTube for all to see. For free.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M52wDQyRJY4
