In Aymara language the past lies not behind us but in front, because it is seen. It is a simple verbal difference but it expresses an important thought: One cannot move forward without being aware of the past. Maybe more than that, one cannot see anything without looking at

the past. Miguel Hilari

This program consists of two films that look to the past and an agrarian existence that is disappearing around the globe. On separate conti- nents, both Philip Hoffman and Miguel Hilari reflect on the social, historical and geographical contexts from which they originated.

Slaughterhouse - Philip Hoffman

CANADA, 2014, 16MM AND VIDEO ON DIGITAL VIDEO, 15 MIN

Anchored by the accounts of nineteenth century Indigenous land rights activist Nahnebahwequay and present day militant dairy farmer Michael Schmidt, Slaughterhouse points to how much the culture of rural Ontario has changedover the last centuries. These reportsare illustrated by a multi-screen collage of images of the surrounding landscape, archival photographs and documents from farming periodicals and Hoffmans own family archive.

El Corral y el VientoThe Corral and the Wind- Miguel Hilari

BOLIVIA, 2014, 16MM AND VIDEO ON DIGITAL VIDEO, 55 MIN

Shooting in Santiago de Okola, the rural Bolivian village where his father was born, Miguel Hilari notes how the place intimi- dated him as a child. In The Corral and the Wind Hilari focuses mostly on children and animals as he records the stark beauty of the highland landscape while suggest- ing undercurrents of struggle and toil. Whether recording schoolchildren from the village as they perform songs and poems of resistance or an encounter between his uncle and a neighbour joking about a dog, the distance and formality with which Hilari treats his subjects implies both an admiration for these people and a longing for a deeper connection with the culture of his Indigenous ancestors.

Co-presented with imagineNATIVE and aluCine