Latin Film Fest Goes Native
June 5th, 2007
Child labour. If you think you've heard it all before, think again.
This time it's the forgotten kids of Latin America who take centre stage in Antonio Rosa's powerful documentary.
The first film to be shown as part of the Native Spirit Festival, which opens in venues across London this week, No es un juego (Not a game) depicts the drudgery and hardship which afflict an unthinkable number of Latin youngsters from the mangroves of El Salvador to the emerald mines of central Colombia.
This, says Rosa, is their story. Plumping for "no narration, no explanation and no actors", the documentary is given over to a litany of characters who take us through their average working day. For most that means trading school for a pick of mind-numbing jobs in a bid to help their parents make ends meet.
In Peru, Clerian, 15, spends six hours ferrying baked bricks around a dusty makeshift quarry earning just £3 for every thousand. "It's tedious" she says. "Sometimes it's very tiring".
At the La Chureca landfill site on the outskirts of Managua, Nicaragua, more than 50 kids scavenge for plastic bottles and aluminium which is washed and re-sold to help their families buy food.
In Guatemala, kids string together line upon line of fire crackers at a rural fireworks factory, as our eyes struggle to keep up with the pace of their fiddly finger movements.
The facts speak volumes and give rise to the occasional gasp and a sea of shaking heads. It's a sad reality, and someone has to tell it, says Rosa, after the film. "We live in a world where we only see what we want to see", he says. "We have to spread the word."
The Native Spirit Festival runs at venues across the capital until June 9. Nearly 40 films will be screened and introduced by indigenous Latin American film-makers.
Watch No es un juego (Not a game) online in English or Spanish.
Image: noesunjoc
