Bursting Lima’s Film Bubble: Women in the Contemporary Nonfiction Filmic Scene in Peru

Abstract

Women-led documentary projects in Peru have been in place since the 1970s. In the twenty-first century, Peruvian female documentary makers continue creating and sustaining the nonfiction film scene. Moreover, women’s participation and leadership have risen due to easier access to technology, training, increase in exhibition spaces, and a broader context of feminist affirmation. This chapter examines two examples of independent nonfiction film modes of production by women: Diana Castro, creative producer of films and festivals, and Lorena Best, director, teacher, and organizer. The contexts within which they work are presented as creative emancipatory habitats that propose and endow a nonhierarchical film culture alternative to commercial and art film logics, as well as to traditionally male-dominated cinephilic paradigms.