In December 2022, months of anti-government protests erupted in Peru. More than 50 people were killed in violence by the police and military. Filmmaker Mayra Villavicencio follows events from her home in Barcelona: using Google Street View, she walks virtually through the streets of Lima, the Peruvian capital she loves. It strikes her that there is a surveillance camera on almost every street corner. The cameras are used to monitor and track down protesters, but they have also captured the authorities’ aggression—and the killings.
Villavicencio sets out to perform a poetic act of resistance. Using AI, she erases the violent, menacing presence of the police from the virtual streets. She searches, selects, deletes silhouettes, removes weapons. In small subtitles, she silently adds her commentary, while in the background news channels loudly extol the security that the city’s 3,500 cameras are supposed to provide.
Stills
