Demystifying production to return cinema to the people: the Mining Film Workshop (Bolivia, 1983)

One of the experiments in radical pedagogy and the proletarianization of audiovisual media that resonate in an almost mythical way in the inner circles of research on Latin American political cinema is the Mining Film Workshop (Taller de Cine Minero, TCM) held in 1983 in the Telamayu mine in Atocha, Bolivia, Potosí Department. This training program lasted three months and resulted in thirteen short documentaries that can be classified stylistically as direct cinema. The organizing institutions were the Direct Cinema Training and Research Center (Centre de Formation et Recherche Cinéma Direct), a member of the French Varan Studios (Ateliers Varan) group, in conjunction with the Syndical Federation of Bolivian Mine Workers (Federación Sindical de Trabajadores Mineros de Bolivia, FSTMB), with the support of the state-owned Bolivian Mining Corporation (Corporación Minera de Bolivia, COMIBOL).