Business Screen Magazine (1963-1964)

PROGRESS IS A ROAD THRU VICOS "Seeds of Hope" Are Growing in a Peruvian Valley to Set an Example in Latin-America and the World A LONG THE Sweeping Arch of •'*■ the Andes — the towering backbone of the South American continent— live 7 million landless Indians, descendants of once powerful races: the Chibchas, Ouechuas. Aymaras. Guaranies. Before Pi/arro led his Spanish adventurers to the coast of Peru, these people lived under the rule of the mightv Inca empire. For them time has stood still for centuries. They live on the slopes and highlands of forbidding mountain ranges (often as high as 15.000 feet) in the timeless isolation of ignorance, ill health and abject poverty . . . bought and sold like o.xen with the land. For ages there has been no hope, hardly even the will, for a better future. An Experiment in Progress Nothing could be changed — or so they believed — because it was the will of destiny that they should never know freedom, never have enough to eat. never see many of their children live to walk: and those who might survive would be no better than their fathers. One day ten years ago. on one of these haciendas named Vicos. an American anthropologist from Cornell University began an experiment to see how the primitive Indians would react to modern culture and methods. As a result of this experiment, the Vicosinos have learned new ways to cultivate their land and increase crop production: they have begun to govern their own community and to educate themselves and their young. Now Owners of the Hacienda With help, teaching and encouragement, they now have become proud and responsible owners of the hacienda where thev And>" .\emes \htnc.s Hihtrio Crimzttlez, prexideni of the cmnnnmitij council, the norAi'ngs of the mot ion l)icturc camera. Young Vieosenos a.s.■iisted the crew with surpri.iing skill. once worked as slaves only ten years ago. Last year the Thomas Craven Film Corporation was commissioned by the United Slates Information Agency to produce a halfhour television program on film telling the story of Vicos: a story of the peoples' aspirations for freedom and dignity, and of their struggle to escape the timeless bondage to the past Capturing a Dramatic Change The task of creating this film was given to Andrew B. Neme^. a director-producer with extensive Latin American film experience. When Nemes and his crew arrived in this spectacular valley of the Peruvian .Andes last November, they found approximately 300 Indian families living in scattered huts at great distance from each other on the land of the 3.5.000acrc hacienda, working their small plots to use every inch of arable soil on the steep, wind-swept mountainsides. Knowing that the Vicosinos had responded well to the guidance given by the Cornell-Peru project. Nemes" task was to capture on film a sense of the dramatic change accomplished in the brief 10 years which lifted a group of backward people out of their 14th centuryexistence into a modern era. Become Part of Vieosenos Nemes and his crew hauled their cameras up the narrow road which winds from the spectacular Santo River Valley to the old hacienda house and church where now a new school, dispensary and community center face a grassy square from where once these people were ruled by strong-handed overseers. The small group of film-makers settled in the community, attempting to build a bridge of understanding and communication with the people who speak only Ouechua. Slowly they became a part of Vicos — and slowly they began to recognize the subtle signs of the tremendous change the Vicosinos uere undergoing. Their attitude, llieir pride and their accomplishments became the fabric out of which evolved the compelling story of how a backward and helpless people can build themselves a new and better life with modest assistance and hope. Working without a script, Nemes ililario (ion/.alez. ti h'ader in the \'iV'f).v ii.\ /»■ lell.s of school e.xpi'riences when he eiinnniinilij. !is1en.\ to /ii.i son was sent to become a teacher. recorded their language, their music, their folk songs, and documented on film how understanding the value of working together has brought strength and status to their community. Now, they elect their leaders and they decide on all matters concerning their work and business. Their children now go to the new school which their fathers have built. II<>l>e for Countless Millions This new understanding and knowledge became the seeds of hope not only for the Vicosinos but for millions of downtrodden people who still seek to emerge from the dark ages of misery and ignorance into the 20th century. The film, entitled .Seeds of Hope. tells with quiet strength and force how the aae-old desire of man for a better life for himself and his children can be attained with outside help and self-determinatiow. and it also captures the eternal beauty and isolation of the high valleys of the Sierra Blanca in Peru. Photographed by director Nemes. the film was prt)duced by Thomas Craven, edited by Wanda Ten Pas Rotz, and narrated in English by George C. Scott. The film is scheduled for world-wide distribution by the U.S.LA. The Government-TV Industry Committee in charge of selecting entries for all television and film festivals unanimously chose this 28 '/i -minute documentary as the sole half-hour documentary entry from the United States to the Berlin Television Festival this year • Production crew is led through rochj .\ndfan footpath hij Victor Mala. i:n( of the principal characters in litis I'SIA film. "Seeds of Hope." NUMBER 7 • VOLUME 25 • 1964 63