Rosa de Lima

19 kilometres off the Peruvian capital Lima, Villa El Salvador is no ordinary "barriada". With its more than 300,000 inhabitants, it is a true example of self-management, autonomy and community. Joëlle de La Casinière makes a portrait of this "new city", built out of nothing, in no time, in the middle of nowhere. Associating boleros, rancheras, and other South American popular music genres with the devastating sight of desert roads and industrial cars, de La Casinière plays with the existing stereotypes of South America, highlighting thus this continent's great contrasts.

French by origin and Belgian by adoption, Joëlle de La Casinière is mostly known for her work in the 1980's with the Montfaucon Research Center. Between 1972 and 1979 Joëlle de la Casinière and her companion Michel Bonnemaison travelled across the American continent, a series of ten films being the result of their journey.

Rosa de Lima                                     
Joëlle de La Casinière, Michel Bonnemaison
Belgium, 1975
Color & B/N - 40’ - Spanish version English subtitles