'Against the Grain' shows how artists challenged society in Peru
While L.A. native Ann Kaneko was shooting her latest documentary in 2001, she witnessed a country gripped by terror, where those who raised awkward questions were often treated as troublemakers, traitors or worse, writes Reed Johnson in Calender.
Kaneko wasn't training her lens on the post-Sept. 11 United States. She was holed up in Lima, Peru, taking the pulse of the South American country that had been torn apart by a brutal Maoist guerrilla uprising and an equally ruthless government reprisal. Her focus was four Peruvian artists whose work challenged and criticized Peruvian society by examining issues of state-sponsored violence, governmental repression and class, ethnic and sexual prejudice.
For their efforts, each artist paid a price, as Kaneko records in "Against the Grain: An Artist's Survival Guide to Peru." The 64-minute film, which has been screened from San Francisco to Washington, D.C, as well as in Lima and Quito, Ecuador, will be shown at 8 p.m. Thursday at the Echo Park Film Center, 6:30 p.m. on June 4 at the UCLA Downtown Labor Center, and 7 p.m. on June 7 at the Imix Bookstore in Eagle Rock.
Image: From "Against the Grain: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Peru." Credit: Ann Kaneko
-- Deborah Bonello in Mexico City
