7th Ecuadorian Film Festival Short Film: WHERE WE WERE SAFE

WE WERE SAFE (38m) Directed by Marcos Echeverria Ortiz | Spanish (English Subtitles)

For the last 80 years, Black and Latino barrios in New York City have suffered the drastic effects of racist urban policies now mirrored in hypergentrification. Consequently, their historical sites, cultural hubs, and family businesses, located in the five boroughs, have experienced a silent erasure. "We Were Safe" is an interactive oral history archive that focuses on collecting memories about the destroyed and historic Salsa music places in New York City, such as ballrooms, clubs, record stores, and outdoor venues. Combining digital mapping and cultural memory, this project aims to reconstruct historical space and recover these sites' heritage through a lens of social, racial, and cultural dynamics that fed the Latin experience in the 1970s.

INVITADO MARCOS ECHEVERRÍA