Rarely do rural and urban teenagers have a chance to cross the divide to form friendships. When Christopher’s eighth-grade class learns about Chile’s ethnic diversity, he forms an email penpal relationship with a teenager of Quechuan descent who lives in the desert. This charming and affectionate documentary follows Christopher as he travels from his working class neighborhood in Santiago across the breathtaking Chilean landscape to meet his penpal, a shy but friendly thirteen-year-old named Juan. For a week, Christopher shares the one room where Juan and his large family live, attending Juan’s school, practicing Quechua, learning about the community’s traditions, and finding that despite their many differences he and Juan have much in common.  
 
Pushing the boundaries of documentary, Christopher’s narrative voice leads us through his journey. He finds his first plane trip exhilarating and the long train trip to Juan’s small village of Ollague exhausting. Wide-eyed Christopher drinks in his new surroundings. As he boards the crowded train, Christopher notes that all the people of Quechuan descent look the same to him. After a week getting to know Juan and his family, Christopher develops a deeper appreciation for his new friends. With a small video camera, Christopher creates a video diary of his trip in order to share all he has learned with his family and classmates back home in Santiago. He interviews Juan’s grandmother who explains that she has been working the land since she was six years old. Christopher is welcomed with a ritual slaughtering of a llama. Juan’s uncle notes that although the lives of young people of Ollague are different than that of their ancestors, the community preserves many of their rich traditions. Beautifully paced and elegantly shot, the boys’ relaxed presence in front of the camera allows the audience to comfortably witness their getting to know one-another. It turns out that they both have hard working mothers whom they adore, several siblings, and a desire to one day become electricians. The two boys surf the internet, discuss basketball, and take a breathtaking bike ride to a small signpost that represents the only marker of the Chilean/Bolivian border. As the boys cross back and forth over the invisible line, the film suggests the arbitrariness of boundaries between peoples, places, and cultures. This film celebrates Chile’s ethnic diversity, explores the effects of poverty on rural and urban teenagers, and subtly suggests that building friendships across difference is an important step to confronting ethnic prejudice. s

Price
Institutional: $200.00
Home: $49.95