OUR MOTIVATION
• Because we believe that it is possible to make cinema in Latin America in a way that is effective, of high quality and with a shared vision.
• Because our ethnic, cultural and social differences are the bread which feeds us.
• Because there is not just one public, but rather many different publics who are the subject of our stories, and should also be their audience.
• Because it is possible to make cinema with limited resources. And a shortage of resources should not be seen as a disadvantage, but as a motivation to overcome material insufficiency with talent and imagination.
• Because we have a commodity which the first world has lost: we have time at our disposal. Time to think, to discuss, to create and experiment without the pressure of material needs.
• Because myths of Latin American poverty should not overshadow the great wealth of human and economic resources which are constantly used here in cultural celebrations.
• Because social and cultural conflicts are affecting us today, in Bolivia, in this melting pot of changes.
• Because Bolivia is a fundamental part of the heart, and is the lung of the new which is struggling to be born.
• Because cinema, more than merely acting as a mirror of a country, can also rejuvenate an industry which provides employment and generates economic and cultural resources.
• Because cinema can relate to all other arts and artists in an organic way, creating opportunities for every form of art.
• Because it is possible to create a different type of cinema in a different way.
• Because young artists are the creative and human force for the future. For this reason, the older generation must pass on their own experiences and help the new generation to find it's own voice.
• Because new technologies allow a more democratic method of producing media, giving voice to our cultural quarrels faster and more effectively.
• Because together we go far, and divided we go to pieces and end up accepting the scraps from productions which are planned over desks which are too far from our reality.
• Because there is an urgent need to create images of these realities in order that they will be recognized, and that we will recognize them and discuss them ourselves.
• Because we, as artists, are the ones who can offer people hope that their realities will be reflected and form part of a collective memory in years to come.
OUR PROPOSALS
• To build a house/centre for artists in the grounds of Teatro de los Andes, together with Buena Onda Americas, with the aim of providing a place for novelists, screenwriters, dramatists, editors and directors to write their projects, develop their ideas, discuss their proposals, exchange their abilities and experiences, produce and involve themselves in their work.
• To prepare the actors for the films which they will be a part of.
• To arrange screenwriting workshops for those who are aiming to produce their second films.
• We also aim to promote the integration, collaboration and solidarity of Latin American filmmakers, with special emphasis on the emerging cinema from Central America, The Caribbean, Paraguay, Uruguay, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia.
• To address the pitiful state of film distribution in our countries, assisting and promoting festivals and meetings, organizing film societies, cinema in neighborhoods, towns and communities.
• To become the buccaneers ourselves in the battle against piracy, respecting our rights as authors by distributing our own works ourselves and creating a network of solidarity with other producers and directors.
• To push for national legislations in Latin America to recognize the real needs of artists and producers.
• To consider the public of our nations as the beneficiaries of our work, with the aim that they will recognize this.
• To fight for the obligatory programming of national and Latin American cinema, and works of art relevant to our realities, on the television channels which currently ignore these.
WHY YOTALA AND WHY BOLIVIA?
• Because Bolivia is at the centre of the knots to be solved, and Yotala is in the centre of Bolivia.
• Because the cultural conditions of Bolivia force us to listen to outside opinions, and in Yotala a group of outsiders, artists, have managed to put in place an alternative way of living for the past 16 years.
• Because the virus of cinema has attacked the core of Teatro de los Andes, and the response to this creative virus is an artistic hospital.
• Because writing scripts and editing films are two fundamental moments in the creation of cinema.
• Because Yotala is a place for reflection, where time is unhurried and there is the space to use it.
• Because it is a heaven on earth, a place which is at once difficult, beautiful, harsh and relaxing. And a place of creation.
• Because often the centre can be seen more clearly from the periphery, and this particular periphery is a wonderful observatory for the present.
• Because here it is possible to be settled and work in a way which goes against the grain of city life without attracting attention.
• Because for 16 years we have demonstrated that it is possible to create art where artistic work didn't exist, that it is possible to live from this work, and that it is possible to aid, through art, the society which in turn helps us, with it's troubles and worries.
Founders
