Exclusive Trailer for Augusto Zegarra’s Praised Documentary Runa Simi Honors a Peruvian Phenomenon
The highly praised Peruvian documentary Runa Simi, marking the feature directorial debut of Augusto Zegarra and produced by Dominique Bravo, Ellen Schneider, Benjamin & Peter Bratt, Alpita Patel, and Bill & Ruth Ann Harnisch, is scheduled for a one-week run starting this Friday at Firehouse: DCTV’s Cinema for Documentary Film in New York City. In advance of its premiere, we are excited to present the trailer exclusively.
After a successful festival circuit that garnered multiple honors—including the Albert Maysles Award for Best Documentary Director at the Tribeca Festival, the Youth Jury Award at Sheffield DocFest, and the Ibero-American Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival—the film will also include post-screening Q&As with both the filmmaker and the main subject.
The documentary centers on Fernando Valencia, a 29-year-old voice artist from Cusco in the Peruvian Andes, who is also an Indigenous activist, painter, and a dedicated single father to his lively eight-year-old son, Dylan. Known for his exceptional talent in voicing various characters, Fernando created Quechua Clips, a viral initiative that reinterprets iconic animated scenes in Quechua, the ancestral language of the Incas, also referred to as Runa Simi. The response was remarkable, highlighting a significant audience of Quechua speakers eager to enjoy beloved stories in their native tongue.
Motivated by this overwhelming support, Fernando pursues an ambitious and idealistic goal: to dub Disney’s 1994 classic The Lion King into Quechua, with the assistance of his enthusiastic son. Equipped with a homemade studio and unwavering determination, Fernando encounters numerous challenges, including rejections, obstacles, and moments of self-doubt. Nevertheless, his resolve remains strong, transforming a personal quest into a compelling call for language justice and the reclamation of culture.
Watch the exclusive trailer below:
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Exclusive Trailer for Augusto Zegarra’s Praised Documentary Runa Simi Honors a Peruvian Phenomenon
The highly regarded Peruvian documentary Runa Simi, marking the feature directorial debut of Augusto Zegarra and produced by Dominique Bravo, Ellen Schneider, Benjamin & Peter Bratt, Alpita Patel, and Bill & Ruth Ann Harnisch, will have a one-week run starting this Friday at Firehouse: DCTV's Cinema for Documentary Film in New York City. In anticipation of this release,
