Recap: Violeta Went to Heaven - screening

On January the 24th we screened ‘Violeta se fue a Los Cielos’ in the Building with the Clock. We were happy to see a good turnout for the movie screening with some 20 odd visitors.

In preparation to the movie screening we redecorated the room in such a way that it had a warm and welcoming vibe. We had tea and cookies, all there to create a space where people could come together in comfort. It is part of what we are trying to achieve together with ‘Stories. The Urge to Tell’, which is to create a space where people not only come to be presented with information but also to be part of the conversation on a personal level.

At the start of the event the room went dark. The screen for the beamer was down already and the beamer projected the spiralling shell that has become the trademark image for Stories. The Urge to Tell. There is a story in there too, we just did not expose it yet.

Arta, who has been seminal in shaping the project from the start, began the evening with a poem about the magic of stories and about how they connect to so many different things and how they are so important for us humans to connect to things bigger than ourselves.  

After this I gave a small talk about the movie, about how we had the intention to discuss the story of the life of Violeta Parra as exemplary for how marginalized people struggle for justice through art that is explicitly tied to the culture that they come from.

We than proceeded to screen the movie. The movie itself is a somewhat non-linear mixture of a story about the youthful years of Violeta Parra, her development as a politically engaged artist, who strolls through the Chilean countryside looking for old people who remember old songs, which is sometimes a race against the clock, her reception by different audiences, her turbulent love life all with a frequently reoccurring touch of magic realism.

After this movie dense with emotions and impressions we had a discussion about the movie where we focused at the linkages between who Violeta was as a mestiza women and her work as a multimedia artist and storyteller and life.

Overall the movie night felt quite experimental. Especially because of how we attempted to connect the movie to a philosophical conversation about storytelling as a way to expose almost forgotten histories of people that remain invisible due to their marginalization.

It was an experience from which I myself learned a lot as well and I will probably continue to do so. That is also why I am looking forward to the next movie screening on February 21st where we will continue to explore storytelling through traditional art with the documentary called ‘Arpilleras’.

See you there!