Mamani in El Alto

The civil engineer and architect Freddy Mamani Silvestre became the founder of neo-Andean architecture. He has designed more than 60 building projects in the Bolivian city of El Alto since 2008, which mock the norms of a formulaic modern architecture shaped and enforced with global aspirations by the Bauhaus. Mamani comes from a humble background and belongs to the Aymara people. His self-taught architecture is a counter-utopia that grew out of local usages and opens up a view of preferences other than sparseness and global stylistic adherence. The film shows many of the “cholets” he built with their magnificent ballrooms in their urban setting. (Mar del Plata International Film Festival)