TESMA had one of its most profound and wonderful applications on the Emerald Coast of Ecuador in 2009. For 6 months, the team from Extraliminal Productions traveled from Quito to the depths of the Ecuadorian jungle, precisely to the largest natural reserve in the country, Cotacachi Cayapas, to settle in Zapallo Grande, an island in the Cayapas River where the two main populations of the area converged: the indigenous Chachi community and the Afro-descendants of maroons who settled in the area centuries ago. Both communities were contacted by the Western world just over a century and a half ago, so the indigenous Chachi language remains the primary language of the area.

The first contacts from the West in the area were made by missionaries who began to introduce Christian spirituality and other techniques and tools such as medicine. Our project was anchored there, as the first national and international assistance focused on an exotic disease that was claiming lives, Onchocerciasis. Thus, the National Program for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis in Ecuador was created, a 20-year program that served as our starting point for understanding the community’s perspective on the medical processes carried out in the area. The result was two fiction short films, a documentary, and several exercises conducted in the workshops, based on real stories, which illustrate the community’s perception.

TESMA Zapallo Grande was funded by the British foundation Wellcome Trust, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the Ecuadorian Foundation for Health Research (FEPIS), the National Program for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis in Ecuador, the Zapallo Grande Health Center and its medical team, as well as various bodies of the Chachi Federation of Ecuador.

KEPE PAJTA

Synopsis:

A pair of Chachi sisters, one a teenager and the other a child, live alone in a cabin in the middle of the forest. The older sister tries to keep her pregnancy a secret while raising her little sister. However, the arrival of white medical researchers fills them with terror and forces them to flee, as they mistake them for the Geuyalala: ancestral enemies of their community famous for devouring their victims alive.

EL SHUPA

Synopsis:

A young Afro-descendant boy takes care of his sick mother, fishes, and tends to the small family farm. One day, a medical brigade arrives at their house and takes him away to collect blood samples. The boy seeks help from the overseeing doctor, a British foreigner who doesn’t understand much Spanish. However, in his haste and lack of interest, the doctor ignores the boy and his mother’s health condition, merely paying the boy for his time with some money and sweets.

Behind the Scenes and Exercises

Here’s a glimpse behind the scenes and the exercises carried out by the workshop participants.