Lantéc Chaná
(Lantéc Chaná)
Marina Zeising | Documentary
2017 | 61 minutes | Argentina
A documentary following the last Chaná speaker in Argentina, and linguist Pedro Viegas Barros as they preserve this "extinct" indigenous language.
Synopsis
Lantéc Chaná centers on Blas Wilfredo Omar Jaime, a 71-year-old retired resident of Entre Ríos Province, Argentina, who emerged as the sole surviving speaker of Chaná, a language scholars had classified as extinct since 1815.
The film chronicles the collaboration between Jaime and Pedro Viegas Barros, a distinguished linguist specializing in indigenous South American languages, who validated Jaime's linguistic knowledge and heritage. Through rigorous analysis, Viegas Barros's research led to UNESCO's formal recognition of Chaná as a living but "extremely endangered" language, with Jaime acknowledged as its last native speaker.
The documentary captures the cultural implications of this resurrection, with themes of indigenous identity, cultural preservation, and the role of individual memory in collective heritage. The film traces the work to document and preserve the language and cultural practices, creating a comprehensive record to prevent the disappearance of this legacy.
Reviews
“This Language Was Long Believed Extinct. Then One Man Spoke Up.” – Natalie Alcoba, The New York Times
"A valuable and original documentary...Lantéc Chaná possesses an immeasurable value that will remain as a source of consultation on a fascinating subject." - Escribiendo Cine
"A film about people, about their history, their political dimension, their struggles, their past and their present. And it is, moreover, a good starting point to begin debating and questioning our own history—mine, ours, everyone's. The possibility of thinking of ourselves as a region of much greater cultural richness than that which came to us through the conquest and the 'evangelization' of the original peoples by the Jesuit missions that, not coincidentally, are practically the only records of their existence that remain." - Gabriela Lopez Zubiria, Hacese la critica"
Citation
Coming soon.
Cataloging
A MARC record for this title is not available yet.
Pragda subjects
Anthropology
Culture + Identity
Education
Indigenous Peoples
Latin American Studies
South America
Keywords
Clips
Festivals
Georgia Indigenous Film Festival; International Film and Indigenous Arts Festival Chile; FIDBA Buenos Aires Documentary International Film Festival, La Habana International Film Festival, Latin American Trieste Film Festival, Uruguay International Film Festival
DIRECTOR: Marina Zeising
NATIONALITY: Argentina
YEAR: 2017
GENRE: Documentary
LANGUAGE: Indigenous languages; Other languages; Spanish
COLOR / B&W: Color
GRADE LEVEL: Middle School, High School, College, Adult
SUBTITLE/CC: AVAILABLE
AUDIO DESCRIPTION: NOT AVAILABLE
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