Reflections on Language Based on the Integral Sequence Shot

Abstract

This article proposes a series of reflections based on an important formal procedure in Bolivian cinema. The integral sequence shot was developed mainly in La nación clandestina (Jorge Sanjinés and Grupo Ukamau, 1989). It was conceived by the filmmakers and read by the critics as a translation between different conceptual systems: Andean cosmovision and film language. Through this device, Andean experience of time was meant to be translated in the best possible way to the cinematographic form. The integral sequence shot was conceived assuming that the conception of time in the Andes is radically opposed to the conception of time in the West. The opposition of cyclic Andean time and linear Western time, together with the location of the past in front and the future behind in Aymara language, would prove the need for an audiovisual translation. This text seeks to question the existence of absolute and opposite conceptions of time, and looks at spatial metaphors used to refer to time in Aymara. In this way, an authenticity built upon a cosmovision seen as fundamentally different is questioned.