Voices of El Alto

A tent is pitched on the market square of El Alto, the Bolivian city perched 4,000 meters above sea level. The filmmakers ask random passersby to tell a personal story for the camera. The film opens with a young girl half giggling, half crying as she describes a very unpleasant experience. It seems that the impersonal camera has become the first confidant she has had for a long time. It's a confronting first scene, but at its core it's representative of what is to follow. The Finnish-Bolivian director Benjamin Oroza explains that this "story tent" – which he has been taking all over the world since 2009 – is a way of "making films them, not them I want my films to convey a sense of – while I remain silent and invisible." Oroza's sympathetic presence and the generosity of the passersby in sharing their personal experiences combine to create a sensitive collage of stories, a poignant and intimate insight into personal joy and sorrow. There's everything from an optimistic anecdote about a first kiss to a loudly declaimed mini-play about the native population's struggle for independence, along with accounts of runaway spouses, violent fathers, and the pain of being cast out by your own family.