Flash is required to view this website.

View: SEO (Text)

Trailer

Upcoming Screenings

• Humanity Explored Film Festival

Past Screenings

• SEE Film Festival - Brighton

• Pusterviksteatern - Göteborg

• Världskulturmuseet / The Museum for World Culture Göteborg

• Hagabion - Folkets Bio Göteborg

• Kulturförvaltningen - Göteborgs Stad

• Imagenes del Sur Festival at Panora - Folkets Bio Malmö

• Bio Centrum - Limhamn
Malmö

• Cervantes Institute - Stockholm

Synopsis

Porters of the Inca Trail follows Leoncio Monteagudo in his work as a porter on the world renowned four-day trek to the ruin citadel of Machu Picchu in southern Peru. The documentary explores the history and political struggle of the porters as well as cultural and traditional cornerstones of their Quechua heritage.

A majority of the porters are of the Quechua people, descendants of the Inca Empire who constructed a vast and intricate network of roads throughout the Andes Mountain Range. Today they bear the burden of their ancestors as they are exploited as cheap labor by the tourist agencies that operate on the Trail.

Machu Picchu recently became one of the New 7 Wonders of the World, and thus expected to receive a greater number of visitors in years to come. Along with more tourists come consequences for the porters’ working and living conditions. The need for action becomes greater every day as the porters will increase in numbers.

The purpose of Porters of the Inca Trail is to inform tourists visiting the region of the porters’ situation, to raise the voice of the Porters’ Federation (labor union) and to pressure the authorities to act. Our strategy is to support those who follow the ILO guidelines, and to encourage responsible tourism.

The documentary includes topics such as museification of culture, development, and provide a historical insight into the porters’ struggle for rights.

The film also takes place in other locations than the Inca Trail. In Cusco, former capital of the Inca Empire, a historical insight is given by Luis Figueroa, one of Peru’s foremost classical filmmakers. We meet the chairman of the Porters’ Federation in the village of Urubamba, and in the neighboring village Ollantaytambo we get to know Leoncio’s life and his porter friends in the area, such as a chief porter of 28 years from the highland community of Huilloc where many of the tourist agencies’ broken development promises lie, particularly the impoverished school.

We follow Leoncio to an enormous religious gathering in a glacial valley, where we meet fellow porters. On the Inca Trail we meet three English tourists on the journey of a lifetime. We also meet one of very few female guides and in Machu Picchu we interview the head of the Machu Picchu National Park.

Leoncio is the red thread who guides us through this Sacred Valley.

Tourism

We do not discourage people from visiting the region. On the contrary we urge tourists to do so in a sustainable manner.

Today roughly 7000 porters service tens of thousands of tourists who visit the Inca Trail annually and after decades of exploitative working conditions they organized in a labor union. Through the union they drafted the Porter's Law agreed to by the Peruvian government. The law guarantees them certain rights according to Peruvian laws and the ILO Convention 169, such as the right to a minimum wage, a maximum load of 20 kilos, food and proper equipment.

Contrary to the law, the porters often carry around 30 kilos at altitudes of over 4000 meters without insurance, adequate food, equipment and sleeping arrangements. Their salary rarely exceeds €22 for the four 20 hour shifts. Added to this are the injuries, deaths, empty promises of development projects, and much more.

The 46 km long Inca Trail will be visited by approximately 70 000 tourists this year according to the National Institute of Culture (INC) who administer the area, and almost a million pass though Leoncio’s small mountain village Ollantaytambo on their way to Machu Picchu. Currently 163 tourist agencies operate with permits on the Government controlled Inca Trail. Out of these only 3 comply with the porters’ labor law. The tourists pay up to €650 for the trek and usually make an effort to choose an ethically sound agency. This is an impossible task, as 160 of these agencies often lie on their websites, or indirectly through travel guides, such as the popular Lonely Planet, regarding working conditions and development incentives.

Porters' Law

1. Provision of food, and appropriate clothing and equipment for spending the night
2. Payment of transport up to the point of departure of the expedition, to the end of the trip, unless this is covered under a separate agreement
3. Life insurance
4. Limit of load of 20 kilograms. With regards to women, the maximum load will be reduced to the limits which the regulation fixes
5. Appropriate rest and sleep during the trip

The only previously known material about the porters was made by Luis Figueroa, a Peruvian documentary filmmaker, who made a short in 1974 called 'El Cargador'. It can be seen at

Porters Law No. 27607:
Conditions of Work

News

The Porters and the Inca Trail

Agencies

Working with the Regional Federation of Porters we have chosen to recommend and promote those few agencies that fulfill ILO standards and Peruvian Law.

Peruvian Odyssey is a more expensive option that caters for researchers and professionals, Llama Path is normally priced, run by an ex-porter/guide and highly recommended, while Waiki Treks, under Indigenous management have a good reputation among the porters.

The list will be updated as we receive more information from the Federation.

Production

The documentary was filmed in the Sacred Valley of Vilcanota, during 8 weeks and shot in HDV using two Sony HVR Z1U cameras.

Some scenes take place at altitudes of over 5000 meters above sea level in glacial valleys, while others are set in the breathtaking mountain cloud forests where the Andes meet the Amazon.

The soundtrack is composed of Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pachatusan Inkari, and Johnnny Alberto Blanco Centeno.

Maestro Yupanqui, the Argentine folk icon, drew inspiration from the Andean highlands where he had witnessed the stark realities of the Quechua and Aymara decendants of the Inca realm. His name was taken from the last autonomous emperor.

Pachatusan Inkari, directed by Hebe Ernesto Almonacid Bedoya, specialize in pre-hispanic music. Maestro Bedoya reconstructs instruments found at archaeological excavations and recreates the music once played by his ancestors.

Johnnny Alberto Blanco Centeno, following in his fathers footsteps, plays a harp specific to Cusco, once the capital of the Inca Empire of Tahuantinsuyu.

Porters of the Inca Trail is co-production between Compay Pictures and Matchbox Media Ltd.

Contact

Gabriel Manrique
Director

email. g.b.manrique@gmail.com
ph. +46 (0)761717270