︎

HOME            PRODUCTIONS            COLLABORATIONS            ABOUT

PARQUE CENTRAL


2017 / 89 minutes / Documentary / Ricardo Gaona





SYNOPSIS



Nestled in a valley surrounded by three volcanoes and located less than forty kilometers from Guatemala City, Antigua is the former Spanish colonial capital of Guatemala. Currently an UNESCO World Heritage Site, the city is a popular tourism hub featuring colonial architecture and ruins alongside bustling bars, hotels, and restaurants. With the relative wealth of the people passing through, many indigenous families from the economically disadvantaged surrounding farmlands send their children to live and work in the city to earn extra income, most of which is sent back home to help support the rest of the family.


Domingo, who runs his father’s ice cream cart, Yesenia, who sells scarves and weaves traditional braids, and brothers Miguel and Hugo, who shine shoes, are four such children. It is through their day that we get a glimpse of the wider workings of the city.


Starting from the perspective of the children and the park - the center of the city – the film branches out to look at other aspects of the working economy. Artists, street food vendors, and concierges support themselves through work often related to the tourists passing through the city, but local government seeks to control these often indigenous workers’ ability to survive financially. Back in the park the children are harassed by the local tourist police who are there to protect the tourist industry over these indigenous Guatemalans, a form of modern-day colonialism.


As night falls, the wealthy visitors to the city eat at fancy restaurants and dance at the several new foreign-owned night clubs popping up in town while our heroes fall asleep in concrete rooms. In this contrast the film depicts the opposing perspectives on history, colonialism, poverty, and image – of the city and of the people who live and work there.


With a more suggestive than explanatory approach, the audience gets an emotional and physically immersive sense of the lives of the central children and the rhythms of the city as a whole. The experimental ethnographic elements combine with the city symphony aspects to give the viewer both a visceral and a considered experience.



Now streaming on MeansTV
WATCH NOW


Parque Central earned Director Ricardo Gaonoa recognition on Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film

READ THE ARTICLE



CREDITS


DIRECTED BY // Ricardo Gaona

SHOT & EDITED BY // Sean Gillane

WRITTEN BY // Ricardo Gaona + Matthew Henderson

PRODUCED BY //  Ricardo Gaona • Sean Gillane • Matthew Henderson • Morena Pérez Joachin

CO-PRODUCED // Santiago Schmidt

ASSOCIATE PRODUCER // Miriam Bale

STARRING // Hugo Misael Gomez Cortes • Miguel Samuel Gomez Cortes • Crista Yesenia Solano Ordoñes • Domingo Morales Ajanel • Eduardo Reyes

ALSO FEATURING // Juan Carlos Sam Lobos • Gregorio Sam Lobos • Luciano Sam Lobos • Hilda Canil • Pablo Mercedez • Maria Poncio Tzampop • Antonio Morales • Mario Antonio Gomez Cortez • Elizabeth Bell

MUSIC BY // Sean Rawls + Harald Boyesen

SOUND EDITOR / RE-RECORDING MIXER / SOUND DESIGNER // Lawrence Everson

ADDITIONAL SOUND EDITING / SOUND DESIGN // Nacho Cano

ADDITIONAL FOLEY EDITING // Mischa Park-Doob

ADDITIONAL CAMERA // Ricardo Gaona • Manuel (Meme) Solano • Miriam Bale • Hugo Misael Gomez Cortes • Miguel Samuel Gomez Cortes

SPANISH TRANSLATORS // Raúl Sánchez Valle • Julia Muldavin • Ricardo Gaona Sr.

K’ICHÉ TRANSLATOR // Miguel Samuel Gomez Cortes

COLOR BY // Capsaicinco