Lo que los humanos ven como sangre, los jaguares ven como chicha (What Humans See as Blood Jaguars See as Chicha)
by Luciana Decker Orozco
Bolivia, 2023
synopsis
An experimental ethnographic study of a region in the artist’s native Bolivia that was once the centre of the Tiwanaku civilization. The film operates across temporalities and explores the balance between human, animal, and natural worlds in this rural area close to La Paz. Decker’s embodied 16mm camera describes details of the hands of women at work, as they tend to the land and prepare celebratory food and votive objects. Ceramics and archaeological remains are filmed in a series of abstracted fragments whilst a musical performance on the city street is documented in an extended single take. New ecological frameworks are proposed as the work investigates the lived experience of communities now, alongside storytelling about deities, sacred objects, and spaces in the Andes.
about the directors
Born in Bolivia, 1993, Luciana Decker Orozco studied anthropology at UCB (Bolivia) and completed an MFA in Cinematic Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on a scholarship. Currently, she delves into the spectral essence of places, objects and matter through intimate interactions and meticulous observation. She engages in this process by both revealing and concealing her presence, investigating the interstitial spaces where mediation and relationships unfold.
Her films include Nana (2016), Larama (2020), Belén (2020), Objetos Parlantes (2021), Spoils (2023), What Humans See as Blood, Jaguars See as Chicha (2023), and Puro Andar (2025), which have received national and international awards and been showcased at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Locarno Film Festival, Mar del Plata Film Festival, FICUNAM, Open City Documentary Festival, Jeonju Film Festival, EMAF, Torino Film Festival, Frontera Sur, and others. In 2024, she was awarded an artist residency at Gasworks (England).
