Event

We will screen our docufiction film “The Roots Ahead (Las Raíces Adelante)” (2022, 30 minutes, Spanish with English subtitles) set in El Alto. Situated above 4,000 meters, El Alto is Bolivia’s fastest-growing city and one of the world’s highest urban conglomerations. Its population is predominantly indigenous and young. El Alto’s indigenous youth confront racism, discrimination, and a lack of socio-economic opportunities. And yet, they are not passive victims but actively fight to achieve their dreams. In our docufiction, four young female Aymara directors embark on a lo-fi smartphone filming journey through El Alto to share their own stories and explore how other youths are navigating the urban landscape. The film traces how Aymara youths creatively combine ancestral traditions with urban street culture to redefine the city from an indigenous perspective. It is the result of a collaborative project on youth territoriality and urban indigenous alternatives in which the four young directors, supported by non-indigenous academics from Bolivia and the UK, captured their problems and future visions. Following the screening, we will reflect on the potential of participatory video-making – a method grounded in traditions of popular education and participatory action research – in capturing territorial struggles and generating counterhegemonic narratives that challenge urban coloniality. This will form the basis for a discussion with conference attendants on how to contribute to a decolonial praxis that moves beyond habitual research paradigms and foregrounds the territorial knowledge of indigenous peoples in urban territories. The film debate will be in a bi-lingual format (Spanish and English).