[1]The film will be available until June 24 to celebrate the Inti Raymi, or the Sun Festival. Screenshot from the film, available on Vimeo.
To mark the Sun Festival, or Inti Raymi [2], which celebrates the Inca new year, the documentary “Humano [3]” has been made available online free of charge.
[Update: Until June 30] viewers who register with the film's website will be able to watch [4]the quest of a young man in search of answers about the human condition in the Peruvian Andes. The Spanish-language documentary is available with English and Portuguese subtitles.
According to the documentary's description:
HUMANO es una película documental que narra el viaje de un joven a las montañas andinas, acompañado solamente por una cámara, doscientas preguntas y las [ansias] de descubrir el origen de [los seres humanos]. En Q’eros [en el Cuzco peruano] se encuentra con un chamán que le explicará que antes de responder sus dudas, él deberá aprender a ser Humano.
HUMANO is a documentary film that tells the story of the journey of a young man into the mountains of the Andes, accompanied only by a camera, two hundred questions and the longing to discover the origins [of human beings]. In Q'eros [in Cusco] there's a shaman, who will explain that before answering any of his questions, he will have to learn how to be a human being.
The film focuses on personal discoveries and the search for identity from the point of view of Incan traditions. It also deals with ancestral teachings from the region that promote a better understanding of the nature of things.
According to the filmmakers, the documentary was unscripted. They say they used technology and social media to widen the reach of not only the film itself, but also its overarching message:
Filmada en el altiplano andino durante tres meses ininterrumpidos, no hubo guión ni planificación de rodaje, la única guía fueron las preguntas, el corazón del director y el paqo andino (chamán). Ellos fueron los únicos protagonistas y testigos de este íntimo viaje a las profundidades del inconsciente colectivo. El documental ha demostrado que otra forma de hacer cine es posible, tanto en su producción como en su exhibición, donde se aprovecha al máximo el uso de la tecnología y las redes sociales. Gracias a la ayuda de más de doscientos humanos que colaboraron como mecenas, técnicos y colaboradores se ha podido generar esta película que habla de lo que somos.
Set in the high Andean plateau for a uninterrupted period of three months, [the documentary] didn't have any script or planning. The only guide were the questions, the heart of the director and the shaman. They were the only main characters and witnesses of this intimate journey to the depths of the collective unconscious. The documentary has demonstrated that other ways of making films is possible, not only regarding their production, but also their exhibition. [We] took the maximum advantages of all the technological resources available and of social media. Thanks to the help of more than 200 humans that collaborated as sponsors, technicians and collaborators it was possible to make this movie, that tells the story of who we are.
The Sun Festival
The Sun Festival, or Inti Raymi, comes from the Incas and is celebrated in communities of this descent. The blog Cometa Mágico (Magic Comment) explains the tradition [5]:
Inti Raymi era la más grande e importante celebración que se llevaba a cabo en tiempo de los Incas y que se continúa hoy cada solsticio de invierno (24 de junio, en el hemisferio sur), en los Andes mientras en el hemisferio norte se celebra la “Noche de San Juan” [6]. [Para los incas] Inti Raymi marca el comienzo de un nuevo año. Era celebrado al final de la recolección de papas y maíz para agradecer a Inti por la abundante cosecha o, de otra manera, pedir por una más exitosa en la próxima estación.
Inti Raymi was the biggest and most important celebration in the times of the Incas, and continues today every winter solstice (June 24 in the southern hemisphere) in the Andes. Meanwhile, in the north, it is the St John's Eve [7]. [For the Incas] Inti Raymi marks the beginning of the new year. It was celebrated at the end of the harvest of potatoes and corn to thank Inti (the Sun) for the abundance, or to ask for a better harvest in the next season.
The post goes more extensively into detail about the festival's rituals and history, such as the fact that celebrating the festival was prohibited [8] during the time of Spanish colonization. Finally, the author points out the importance of the tradition as a way to keep an ancient memory alive:
Actualmente el Inti Raymi es una representación teatral, pero también una de las manifestaciones tradicionales más evocadoras de nuestra identidad nacional porque simboliza los valores y recuerdos de nuestro pasado.
Today, Inti Raymi is a theatrical representation, but it's also one of the most evocative traditional manifestations of our national identity, for it symbolizes the values and the memories of our past.