By Augusto Zegarra
Hakuchu Munayta
Fernando, a voice actor from Cusco, Peru, is trying to save his indigenous language from extinction. He dreams of dubbing the animated classic The Lion King into Quechua, the language of the Incas. His journey to achieve this will make him re-examine his role as a father and an activist, with his 8-year-old son, Dylan, as his essential sidekick.
Country : Peru
Original languages : Quechua, Spanish
Subtopic :
Children & Education Director
Augusto Zegarra (Peru)Producers
Paloma Iturriaga (Peru)Claudia Chávez Lévano (Peru)
Estudio Alaska 88
Impact Producer
Ellen Schneider (United States)Duration
85'Production status
Post-productionCompletion
May 2024
Impact Statement
We believe safeguarding a language is synonymous with preserving an entire worldview, and our documentary strives to inspire action towards this cause. Hakuchu Munayta sheds light on the fundamental access to audiovisual content in Quechua (and endangered indigenous languages globally) and other rights denied to indigenous people. Using a powerful, sometimes humorous, intergenerational story, we aim to contribute to the movement towards linguistic empowerment. We're confident about this approach: Fernando's dubbed short animated Disney clips went viral and have now become a powerful educational tool used in schools to preserve and teach this mostly oral language. Promoting the use of this language in children is critical to its future survival in Quechua and other colonised communities around the globe.