Munk School of Global Affairs

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Camille Harrison

Description

This documentary, directed by Toronto filmmaker Peter Conrad and produced by Juan Luis Suárez, is the result of the research trip that researchers and graduate students of "The Hispanic Baroque Project" (an international research venture funded by SSHRC through a MCRI grant) made to Bolivia last summer. In Bolivia, we visited the capital of the Santa Cruz Department, the Chiquitos region, and the Moxos region in the province of El Beni, in the Amazon. Our purpose was to better know the rich architectural and musical traditions of the baroque period, to help in the work on a 7000 score musical archive never investigated before, and to provide our graduate students with a three week training camp in the jungle. The trip was very satisfying in all these fronts, and we came back really proud of our contribution to the preservation and communication of what can be considered the last treasure of the history of classical music. But the real story we found there was that of the people and the communities we encountered along the way, their deep understanding and commitment to their music, and the ingenious ways they are finding to keep their traditions alive and also to economically develop around them. "Guardians of a Musical Treasure" is the story of the Bolivian people and their music, their love for baroque as well as the intensive musical training that children of the communities undergo since they are very young in order to keep their tradition alive.

After the 45-minute film, discussion will be invited by film-maker Peter Conrad, producer Juan Luis Suárez, Marina Jiménez from the Globe & Mail and historian Kenneth Mills

This Latin American Studies event is made possible because of the generous support of the The Hispanic Baroque: a SSHRC Major Collaborative Research Project and the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto.

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Latin American Studies