Born in Asunción, Paraguay in 1971, director and screenwriter Paz Encina is one of the most talented filmmakers of contemporary Latin American cinema. She earned her degree in cinematography from the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. After working as an editor of news programs for Asunción’s Channel 13, she turned to creating video installations and various short films such as La siesta (1997), Los encantos del jazmín (1998), Supe que estabas triste (2000), and Viento sur (2011), receiving numerous awards such as the Genesis for Best Paraguayan Film.

Her only feature film to date, Paraguayan Hammock (2006), presents a day in the life of an elderly couple awaiting their son’s return during the end of the Chaco War (1932-1935). The film won numerous awards including the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes and the Luis Buñuel Award for Best Ibero-American Film.

Her latest release, Tristezas de una lucha (2015), is a series of short films based on documents, photographs and recordings of interrogations found in the Archives of Terror gathered during Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship (1954-1989). With this project, Encina aims to offer an alternative perspective on her country’s traumatic past through the words of oppressors in the very act of exerting their power. When asked to what extent her own experience of growing up during the dictatorship has impacted the series, Encina replies:

I have no doubt that what happened was state terrorism. All of this, I believe, brings me to feel committed to the film’s status as a creative—and just—work. On the other hand, I sometimes try to disconnect so as not to lose perspective, because I don’t want to make political pamphlets, I want to make films. And therefore I believe that I shouldn’t lose that which film makes unavoidable. I don’t want to lose the poetry, I don’t want to lose the aesthetic value of a scene, I don’t want to lose the moment that does justice or the image that does justice. (Imagofagia; my translation)

Vera R. Coleman

Arizona State University