Against the Grain of Mainstream Film: The Kichwa Cinema of Alberto Muenala and Rupai

This project offers the first full-length study of Alberto Muenala's cinema. Muenala is an Ecuadorean-Kichwa director and a pioneer of Indigenous film in Latin America from its earliest years, and co-founder of Corporación Rupai, now a hub of young Kichwa media activism. Throughout his career, Muenala has been involved in and influenced a range of transnational Indigenous productions. The legacy of his film and community activism is thus profound, but unrecognised and largely undocumented, unlike other large Indigenous community film projects with similar trajectories. This project addresses that gap by providing the first full study of this history, whilst simultaneously exploring appropriate decolonial research methodologies for studying this work. It will thus record and preserve a history which is part of the living Kichwa (and world) cultural heritage, broaden knowledge of Latin American Indigenous cinema for a general audience and provide a space for critical reflection on Indigenous film production. The project will also disseminate research findings and raise awareness about the importance of Indigenous film for world cultural heritage by organising public engagement events in the form of film showcases and workshops, via a multilingual website and through collaboration with members of Rupai on the planning stages of a documentary on this film history.