Insomnia Theater Screening of The Last Year

In 2012, an old, outdated theater reopened to the public on Condell street, just a short walk from the CIEE study center in Bellavista, Valparaiso. The Insomnia Theater has a clear mission statement, Provide the public with free educationally driven movies, documentaries, live dances, and productions for moviegoers of all ages. 

We had the opportunity to vist the theater twice, once for a meet and greet and a short history of the theater and then a viewing of a Chilean documentary. 

During our first conversation, we learned that there was a recent resurgance in Chile for authentic media about the human experience. Leonardo and Sebastian talked with us about the current documentary screening at the theater, Human Flow by Ai Weiwei, a documentary that follows the stories of refugees moving and adapting in a migratory world. It seemed like kismet that we saw an installation piece from the same artist in Santiago. 

Current chilean filmmakers are searching for ways to use their medium to push the limits of our experience. Viviana Corvalan Armijo and Francisco Espinoza told the story of a group of deaf students finishing their last year in their deaf school and making the transition to standard Chilean public schools. The film, El último año, or The Last Year, showed the struggles of being deaf and navigating life at school without an interpreter. Many of our students made the quick connection to our language immersion program and related to the feeling of being lost, confused, overlooked, and left out. However, the atmosphere at the end of the movie was not dejected, it was full of hope and helped put our struggles into perspective. Compassion and patience is key when learning to communicate, regardless if it is  Sign Language or Spanish. 

Communication-- the human connection --is the key to personal and career success. 

-Paul J. Meyer