Ecuadorian Documentaries — Foodways & Resilience: Celebrating Earth Day at Amherst Cinema

Celebrating Earth Day 2024, Amherst Cinema presents two short films from Comidas que Curan, an independent food education and media company dedicated to researching and promoting traditional foods and knowledge through ethnographic research and film.

Pilar Egüez Guevara, PhD, founder of Comidas que Curan and Anthropology Lecturer at UMass Amherst, joins us for a post-screening discussion.

This event is free and open to the public. Tickets are available at the box office only on a first-come, first-served basis. We expect tickets to be available for walk-ups on the night of the screening.

SALANGO:  A LIVING ANCESTRAL HERITAGE
2023 | dir. Esteban Cedeño | 28 min. | Spanish w/subs

Salango, Ecuador is a fishing village whose pre-hispanic origins date back to 6,000 years. Even before pottery was invented, its inhabitants have maintained an intimate relationship with the waters that bathe its beach and surround its island. In this film, we see the current inhabitants of Salango fishing, collecting mollusks, diving, and cooking with the food provided by the sea, an ancestral legacy that is still alive today

 Specialists in the anthropology of Salango share the deep historical, cultural, geographical and spiritual significance of this natural fishing port and the diverse cultures that developed here, for the identity of the coastal peoples and Ecuadorians in general.

TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLGu1QfWVos&t=1s

TARPUNA: CORN
2019 | dir. Gustavo Chiriboga | 34 min. | Spanish w/subs

Tarpuna means ‘to sow’ in Kichwa, the ancestral language of the Andes. In the Corn episode of this documentary series, guardians from the highlands of Ecuador share their skills and traditions to preserve, exchange and reproduce their most sacred seed. The episode is a window into the most important indigenous ceremonial rituals centered around the sowing and harvest seasons in September and April–June. Viewers experience a typical day in the celebration of “la Supalata”, with dancing and gatherings to honor the “abuelos” or sages during the day, and corn-based food and drink preparations and offerings at night. Traditional healers and cooks in the Saraguro, Loja and Cotacachi regions demonstrate the preparation of corn-based cooking recipes that have ritual and medicinal uses.

Viewers take away a practical guide detailing the types, cultural meanings and methods of cooking, preservation, cultivation and honoring of corn in Ecuador. “Corn” is the first episode of the documentary series Tarpuna by the Seeds Savers Network of Ecuador.

TRAILER https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CiTtwys4wY&t=1s