Alicia
Scherson was born in Santiago de Chile in 1974. After graduating
as a biologist, she studied filmmaking in the Escuela de
Cine de Cuba, EICTV. In 1999 she went on a Fulbright scholarship
to the USA, where she earned her Masters in Fine Arts from
the University of Illinois at Chicago (where she studied
with Miranda July among others). Her short films have been
screened and won awards at many international film festivals.
In 2003 she returned to Santiago, where she wrote her debut
feature, PLAY, which was awarded support from the Hubert
Bals Rotterdam International Film Festival and CORFO film
funds and the Beca Fundacion Carolina from the Spanish Government.
PLAY was shot in 2004 and won the Best New Narrative Filmmaker
Award in the 2005 Tribeca Film Festival, New York. Alicia
is now writing her second feature film, whilst also working
as a film teacher in the university of Santiago.
“PLAY was conceived two years
ago while I was living in Chicago and would think about
Santiago de Chile and its people. Being far away and being
a foreigner gave me new insight into the way we define
ourselves as inhabitants of a specific place. The more
the world connects through the global economy and technology,
the more this definition and this awareness of identity
becomes diffuse and complex.
“How do people deal with coming
from a strong ancient culture but living a life that has
nothing to do with it? Is a native Mapuche girl that lives
in the city supposed to feel more identified with her grandmother
from the rainy south than with her favourite heroine of
Japanese video games?
“Cities are like game boards
where rules are to be discovered and change from neighbourhood
to neighbourhood. Urban players have to find the right
role to be able to get up every morning and be a part of
the game during the whole day.
“The main character of PLAY,
Cristina, was born with a strong identity: Chilean, Indian,
female and poor, but does that really explain who she is?
In this game, she will find a suitcase full of clues, of
secret codes that will allow her to become a spy in an
unknown territory: the city of others.
“This movie is an urban fairy tale and I propose,
through Cristina’s adventure, renewed questions about
identity in Latin America. I think only fiction has the power
to address an issue like this without providing simple dogmatic
answers but instead embracing it lightly, with all its complexity,
and, hopefully, generating a new space for reflection and
discussion.”
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