“We preserve the entire audiovisual heritage of the country from 1904 to the present day, both on celluloid and on video, materials that have been gradually rescued from the lungs,” he said of the event in an interview with Prensa Latina.
She added that in addition to this function, the team that works on public education with her works also hosts exhibitions of various artistic expressions at the institution’s headquarters and promotes plays, book launches and music shows.
He described as “very successful” a program called Rural Cinematheque, developed since 2009, which consists of taking film material to educate audiences in places where cinema or audiovisual media in general cannot go, with the aim of developing a critical viewer.
Referring to the national education system, he stressed that in the mornings the cinematheque opens its doors to educational centers to contribute to the students’ audiovisual culture.
Márquez told this news outlet that the foundation he directs is a self-sustaining civil society institution, but has managed to construct a building with four cinemas of different sizes, the vaults where film heritage is kept, a library and rooms where exhibitions are set up and forums are organized.
“All this is an important achievement because the cinematheque was founded on a reduced area of three by three and we finally managed to build this thousand square meter building equipped with the latest technology,” he said.
He stressed that in everything that has been done, the support of civil society and international cooperation are very important.
“We are an absolutely democratic and inclusive institution,” he stressed, here we show films from all countries, without any bias: from the United States, Cuba, Russia, Iran, Colombia, Peru, from the entire Latin American and Caribbean continent.”
He rated the relationships with countries with which the Kinemathek works well, such as Germany, France, China, Japan and Switzerland, as “very good”.
Márquez stressed that “for us, as a self-sustaining institution, public and private agreements are very important to maintain the broad and intense cultural activity that we are developing here and to promote important public actions to develop culture.”
The audiovisual producer also mentioned as a fundamental element that her group is part of the “Memory of the World” project, in which in 2013 she inscribed Jorge Ruiz’s Latin American cinematic heritage, one of the most important heritages of the highland country.
This program is an international initiative promoted and coordinated by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization since 1992 to ensure the preservation and access to the most important documentary and digital heritage for the peoples of the planet.
On the occasion of its 47th anniversary, the Cinematheque presented its Audiovisual Heritage Award to Fernando Cajías, whom Márquez described as “a man of cinema and of Bolivian heritage” and who was a member of the board and board of trustees of this institution for 30 years.
The award was also given to film producer and distributor Gerardo Guerra, who continues a family tradition in the field started by his grandparents.
npg/jpm