Esperanza
2012 · 7m · Documentary
A day in the life of Esperanza, a Quechua girl who lives in the remote mountains of southwestern Bolivia.
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Jaguar's Corner
2010
In 1946, a group of Latvian Brazilian Baptist missionaries arrived to Rincon del Tigre (“Jaguar’s Corner”), in the backwoods of Bolivia, to preach God’s word to the Ayoreo Indians. After sixty years of selfless work in a largely hostile environment, something seems to have gone terribly wrong. Habituated to living under the protective wings of the mission, the Ayoreos seem neither to be willing to support themselves and start living on their own, nor able to return to their traditional way of life in the jungle. Dressed in second-hand clothes, they are stranded in the backwoods of Western-style civilization, with no particular way to go.
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Bolivia Burning
2025
2024 was the worst year on record for the world’s primary tropical forests, and Bolivia lost 1.5 million hectares — more than any country except Brazil. Fires set to clear land for agriculture spiralled out of control, turning swathes of the country into an inferno. Against this backdrop, the film follows investigators from The Gecko Project as they journey through the Chiquitano dry forest in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands — the region most deeply affected by fires and deforestation.
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Gringo Trails
2014 · ★ 6
Are tourists destroying the planet-or saving it? How do travelers change the remote places they visit, and how are they changed? From the Bolivian jungle to the party beaches of Thailand, and from the deserts of Timbuktu, Mali to the breathtaking beauty of Bhutan, GRINGO TRAILS traces stories over 30 years to show the dramatic long-term impact of tourism on cultures, economies, and the environment.
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Cocalero
2007 · ★ 5
A documentary centered on the union formed by Bolivian farmers in response to their government's (which was urged by the U.S.) effort to eradicate coca crops, and the man who would come to represent them, Evo Morales.
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Mamani in El Alto
2022
His buildings are garish, colorful and completely overloaded. Columns and glittering chandeliers everywhere, and way too much of everything. The Bolivian civil engineer and architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre (*1971) builds houses in El Alto for a nouveau riche upper class of the Aymara, the largest indigenous ethnic group in Bolivia.
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Runa Simi
2025 · ★ 10
Single father and Cusco radio host Fernando shares a modest yet endearing hobby with his son: dubbing classic animated clips into Quechua, an Indigenous language spoken by a relatively small population. When one of their dubs unexpectedly goes viral, a private passion transforms into something far more ambitious and meaningful.
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When the Bull Cried
2017 · ★ 9
Danger, toil, and superstition pervade life in a mining town high up in the Bolivian mountains. Tin is the heartbeat of the community providing jobs and livelihoods - but at considerable cost. With deaths commonplace, people make offerings to El Tio, the devil under the earth, for protection and good fortune. But when the mountain's flow of tin ebbs, further measures must be taken...
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Bolivia
1998
Photography trip to Bolivia filmed with a rostrum camera and edited with original sounds from the country.
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Fast Food Off the Shelf
2011
In December of 2002, McDonald's had to shut down their restaurants in Bolivia. The company cited financial problems, but the real reasons were to be found elsewhere. Bolivia may be a small, poor nation on the global market, but a country's fierce local food culture can be sometimes a more powerful factor than economic clout. In his first feature-length documentary, Fernando Martinez shows what happened, a story driven by the characters behind the events and their life stories, such as renowned cooks and a review of popular sayings about the Bolivian food. The symbolism is obvious when a multinational giant is 'brought to its knees' by a country's traditions and heritage.
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