Duiren Wagua

In 1975 French Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Pierre Dominique Gaisseau traveled to Panama to make a film on the indigenous island-dwelling Kuna people. Accompanied by his wife and their daughter, Gaisseau lived with the Kuna for a year, gaining their trust and filming their most intimate ceremonies. He promised to share the resulting film with the community, but that never happened. Fifty years later, the Kunas are still waiting to discover “their” film, now a legend passed down from the elders to the new generation. One day, a hidden copy is found in Paris…While uncovering this fascinating story with humility and warmth, Swiss-Panamanian filmmaker Andrés Peyrot succeeds in capturing a true sense of culture and place. The result is simultaneously a cautionary tale raising questions around how and why documentaries are made and for whom, and a testament to the power of what it means to see yourself on the big screen.

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Colonialism wiped out many Central and South American cultures, but not the Gunadule, the indigenous people of northern Panama. In 1925 they successfully resisted the repression of their culture by the Panamanian government. In three days of fighting, they won their autonomy and thus saved their way of life. Known as the “Dule Revolution,” the glorious battle is commemorated annually with a reenactment involving hundreds of participants, including many children. Bila Burba, made by Duiren Wagua, a member of the Gunadule, shows the reenactment of the successful revolution, and looks back with descendants of the revolutionaries on the reasons for the uprising and the course of the events. ...

This short film portrays the story of Guani, an albino Gunadule boy who endures constant discrimination for being different. To counter his reality, he invents an imaginary friend, Nuchu, who guides him, and together they build their own universe through games.