Skip to content

Christine Mladic Janney

Festivals and Screenings

2017 Viscult Film Festival of Visual Culture, Joensuu, Finland

2017 6th Cine Kurumin: Indigenous International Film Festival, Salvador, Brasil

2016 International Film Festival ETNOFILM Čadca, Slovakia (award winner)

2016 Culture Unplugged Film Festival, online

2016 Intro to Documentary Class, Centro Cultural Peruano-Norteamericano, Arequipa, Peru

2016 Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival, Göttingen, Germany

2016 University of Pennsylvania Community Screening, Philadelphia, PA

2015 FICWALLMAPU, Festival Internacional de Cine Indígena de Wallmapu, Temuco, Wallmapu (Chile)

2015 DOCUPERU Film Festival, Lima, Peru

2015 International Festival of Ethnological Film, Belgrade, Serbia

2015 Festival Internacional del Cortometraje, Buenos Aires, Argentina

2015 Anthropology Student Conference at la UNSA, Arequipa, Peru

2015 Cine + Más San Francisco Latino Film Festival, San Francisco, CA

2015 La Peña Cultural Center, Community Screening, San Francisco, CA

2015 Slovene Ethnographic Museum, Community Screening, Ljubljana, Slovenia

2015 Aboriginal Pavilion of the Pan-American Games, Toronto, Canada

2015 Balboa Park Centennial Celebration, San Diego, CA

2015 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, Washington DC

2015 Centro Latino Community Screening, Krakow, Poland

2015 Screening, Paterson, NJ

2015 A Transnational Journey through Quechua Languages and Cultures, Community

2015 The Americas Film Festival of New York, New York, NY

2015 EthnoCineca Ethnographic and Documentary FilmFest, Vienna, Austria

2015 Chicago Latino Film Festival, Chicago, IL

2015 48th Annual WorldFest Houston, Texas (award winner)

2015 San Diego Latino Film Festival, San Diego, CA

2015 May Sumak: Quichwa Film Showcase, New York, NY

2015 Ossining High School Community Screening, Queens, NY

2015 Women in Film and Television Immigrant Voices Screening, Queens, NY

2015 The Town School Diversity Film Festival, Elementary School Screening, New York, NY

2015 Antropofest Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic

2014 Society for Visual Anthropology Film Festival, Washington DC

2014 Margaret Mead Film Festival, New York, NY, USA (premiere)

Runasimiwan Kawsay
(Viviendo con el quechua / Living Quechua)

17:59 min., 2014

Director / Producer / Cinematographer / Editor: Christine Mladic Janney

Quechua, Spanish, English

Synopsis

Elva Ambía Rebatta’s first language is Quechua, but when she left her town in Peru as a young woman to find work in the United States, speaking Spanish and English became critical for her to survive. While Quechua–a language indigenous to South America–continues to be spoken around the world as a result of such migration stories, UNESCO and other initiatives recognize it as an endangered language. Now in her seventies, Elva decides to help cultivate a Quechua-speaking community in New York City. Runasimiwan Kawsay follows Elva through the challenges and successes of trying to keep Quechua alive.

Background Information

Through an intimate portrait of Elva Ambía, Living Quechua reveals the issues facing Quechua speakers in New York City. Born in Apurimac, Peru, in 1940, Elva learned both the indigenous Quechua language and Spanish as a child; however, her relationship to Quechua was complex. At that time, Quechua was not recognized by the Peruvian government as an official language, and was therefore neither accepted in courts of law nor taught in schools. Discrimination and marginalization of Quechua languages and Quechua speakers–inherited from hundreds of years of Spanish colonialism–were, and still are, deeply entrenched in Peruvian society. Today, Quechua is included on UNESCO’s list of the world’s endangered languages.

Elva moved to the U.S. as a teenager, but the lack of Quechua-language resources, the demands of school and work, and the absence of a Quechua-speaking community made it incredibly difficult for her to maintain the Quechua language. Now in her seventies, she is determined not only to revive her mother tongue for herself, but to help promote respect for Quechua languages and indigenous cultures throughout New York City.

Since 2010, Director Christine Mladic Janney has developed a relationship with Elva and participated with her in Quechua-related community events in NYC. They decided to collaborate in this film project to help increase visibility of Quechua speakers, the challenges they face, and the positive energy they put toward Quechua languages. Given that most (if not all) films about Quechua have been produced exclusively in the Andes, this film will break new ground and raise critical public awareness. This documentary raises issues that will resonate with a range of other communities, such as those invested in the politics of language revitalization, indigenous and oral language maintenance, women leaders in film, ideas about immigration and concerns about aging.

Awards

Award of the Festival Director at the 2016 International Film Festival ETNOFILM Čadca, Slovakia

Bronze Remi Award at the 2015 WorldFest Houston, Texas

Distribution and Purchase

Runasimiwan Kawsay is available for purchase by educational institutions through Third World Newsreel. Once purchased, the film is available for streaming through Alexander Street.

Runasimiwan Kawsay is available for purchase by individuals by emailing living.quechua@gmail.com. Instructions will be sent to buy or rent the film through Vimeo.