Christine Janney

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED: Nora de Izcue is Peru’s first woman film director and co-founder of Latin America’s most influential film school—the International School of Film and Television (EICTV) in Cuba—which changed the future of Latin American Cinema. Nora’s third film, the documentary Runan Caycu (We Are People), captured the fight for social justice by Quechua-speaking indigenous farmers in the 1970s in Peru, but was banned by the dictatorship in power. Desperate to save the film, Nora ensured her original reels left Peru and showed Runan Caycu internationally and in secret. Nora is now 90 years old and has made 20+ films, but Runan Caycu remains her most iconic, significant work. But in the years since it was filmed, the historical reels have been lost, and Nora’s critical role in one of Latin America’s most significant film movements left in the shadows. Searching for Nora weaves together a journey through the past and Nora’s transformation into filmmaker-activist as a single mother, with a present-day search for the original reels of Runan Caycu in vulnerable archives in Peru, Venezuela, and Cuba. With support from the Fejos Fellowship, we made significant advancements on this film through a variety of post-production activities.