Our cowgirl, Justine Iaboni, interviews the manager of Cine Peru: Nathaniel Laywine.
Courtesy of Cine Peru
Sipping $4.50 pints of Creemore and munching on delicious cupcakes in the dimly lit back room of a cozy hot spot could very well brighten up an otherwise dreary, cold and artless, toonie Tuesday. This is the setting for Cine Peru, a unique series of film screenings spearheaded by local good-doer and avid film-lover, Nathaniel Laywine. Featuring two of the most innovative and internationally recognized Peruvian filmmakers of the past decade, (Josué Méndez and Claudia Llosa) alongside scintillating images of Peruvian cinema, what better way to help fund Nathaniel’s voyage to Lima, Peru this February where he’ll be volunteering with La Semilla. Why should we send him to Peru? Well I caught up with him the day after the first of two screenings to find out.
Pony: What initially drew you to the La Semilla organization?
Nathaniel: La Semilla (The Seed) is an organization that works mostly with children of low-income families. Most of their work is dedicated to improving the level of education among these children. I first found out about La Semilla while looking for job postings online. I was checking out international volunteer recruitment agencies and came across La Semilla. The Broadcasting for Youth initiative is really similar to the community broadcast networks that I researched at U of T, among Aboriginal Canadian communities. Since graduating I have been working three unfulfilling contract jobs and feeling fairly dissatisfied with my career path. And since it’s not like I have any dependents or huge ties to slushy Torontonian winters, I thought that I would apply to go work with this organization so I could learn about another culture and country firsthand while also helping develop a program that I think can really be of value to the community.
Pony: How do you hope to contribute to the specific aims of The Broadcasting for Youth initiative while you’re in Peru?
Nathaniel: This program aims to provide access for youth to forms of media and communication technology through the development and implementation of a youth-run community radio station. I hope to help implement a successful series of shows that are self-programmed and directed by the kids that I work with. This is a really great opportunity to speak out and directly address concerns about their own community, rather than for me or an international “development” agency to do it for them. But also generally I’ll be really happy if I get to work with kids and make them excited about getting involved in the radio arts when they might not have otherwise.
Pony: I guess it seems quite apropos that your fundraiser focuses on media as well. So, why did you come up with the idea to organize this particular series of film screenings as way of raising funds for your trip to Lima, Peru?
Nathaniel: Since I found out that I’d be going there I’ve been researching Peruvian art, film and literature for my own interest. I admittedly don’t have any personal or familial connection to Peru, even though I’ve always wanted to travel there. Since I wanted to raise funds to help me on my way I thought that by organizing a showcase of contemporary Peruvian cultural productions, I could both learn about Peruvian people, cultures and societies while sharing my learning process with potential donors. I don’t know if the films I selected are necessarily “educational.” The directors’ styles are so different so the films themselves don’t reflect a unified definition of “how the country is” to the non-Peruvian viewer as if it were even possible to represent an entire country in one or two films. But they are beautiful works on their own and they merit being seen.
Pony: So, promoting Peruvian culture and community within the Toronto art scene really resonates with your project then?
Nathaniel: Peru has a fairly small national film culture, compared to say Argentina, so I think it’s important for it to gain international exposure in order to thrive and continue producing such strong works. I don’t claim to be an expert on the “Peruvian film scene” since only about a dozen or so feature lengths have even been produced since the 1990s and the majority of them don’t have Canadian distribution. But I would like them to! And I hope that in some way this makes more Torontonians personally interested in seeing more “world cinema” as well. (I hate that term, “world cinema” though..!)
Pony: I’ll leave “world cinema” in quotations. One last question for you: why do you think art-savvy youths like yourself should come check out Cine Peru?
Nathaniel: One of my favourite aspects of film is that it has the power to give me a tiny, little bit of insight into another culture or community that I never would have had otherwise, even if I know that the film doesn’t necessarily reflect the director’s national or cultural identity, but complicates it further. I like going to see Hollywood
blockbusters as much as anyone but I also want to get the chance to see independent, international films that offer different themes, opinions or genres than your typical rom-com or action flick which at this point both feel pretty formulaic. I appreciate seeing something different and also feeling like I am challenging my own opinions or ideas of how I see the world.
Pony: Well, I attended the first screening and I’d have to say it was a success, a really great way to infuse art into supporting a good cause. The best part is that it’s on a small, local scale so we actually feel like we’re making a difference, which is kinda sweet. Best of luck on next week’s screening!
***
This Tuesday, December 15, promises to be just as successful. An extra treat above and beyond cupcakes and cinema, celebrated and captivating film critic, Adam Nayman (of Eye Weekly and Cinema Scope) will be introducing Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa (2006), the chosen film for the final screening. Adam graciously offered Pony a horse bit of what Madeinusa is all about:
“In 2006, I sat on a film festival jury that gave a richly deserved prize. I did, however, have a hard time convincing some of my colleagues that this beautiful and disturbing film is, at heart, a comedy, the joke being that its eponymous protagonist (Magaly Solier) is not what she appears to be. What she appears to be is a damsel in distress, lusted after by the male inhabitants of a secluded Andean village (including her father, who also happens to be the mayor). That’d make the earnest city mouse Salvador (Carlos De La Torre), who aims to rescue Madeinusa from her native backwater some kind of white knight — which is to say that he’s practically begging to be knocked off his high horse. Claudia Llosa’s award-winning debut feature employs these fairy-tale archetypes in the service of a double-edged critique that skewers isolationism and interventionism with the same rapier wit.”
In sum, here’s the recipe for a cooler Tuesday with a cause:
What: Claudia Llosa’s Madeinusa @ Cine Peru
When: Tuesday, December 15, 2009.
Where: The Ossington (back room); 61 Ossington Ave, two blocks north of
Queen St.
Time: 7:30pm sharp.
Admission: $10.00 at the door. (Must be 19 yrs or older.)
– Justine Iaboni
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