Shortcuts
Being a little cog in the system can leave you feeling powerless, paralyzed. Still, there are some “common folk” who won’t give up on shaping the world to their liking—even just a tiny bit. These are the people that filmmaker Daniela Delgado Viteri calls “good walkers.” They refuse to stick to prescribed routes and beaten tracks. They take shortcuts.
Viteri’s mosaic of fictive interviews explores five examples of resistance by subversion. One involves inviting tourists to visit your wretched, exotic hut and getting them to pay an exorbitant price for the pleasure. Another is attending a political rally to dance and eat as many free sandwiches as possible.
The footage—which is as messy as the lives it documents—was shot in Peru and Ecuador, where the majority of the population can expect very little from the powers that be.