Marianne Eyde, the Peruvian filmmaker who dreamed of a cinematheque

Leonard Cohen’s first album, released in 1967, included one of the poet’s most beautiful compositions: “So Long, Marianne”, a song in which he lovingly bids farewell to Marianne, a woman who marked his life. Resorting to her today is unavoidable, since it is time to say goodbye to a great lady of Peruvian cinematography: the Peruvian-Norwegian filmmaker Marianne Eyde, who died on June 7 at the age of 73.

He was born in Tønsberg, Norway, in 1949, but when he traveled to Peru in the 1970s, he decided that our country would be his homeland. He had studied Political Science in France, and when he moved to Lima he chose to study Communication Sciences at the University of Lima, thus forming part of the first promotion of this career. Since then he has worked making short, medium and feature films; first for other production companies and then for his own, Kusi Films.

In 2019, in the interview he gave to El Comercio regarding the tribute that the Lima Film Festival paid him at the time, he said that he founded his production company to be able to work freely. “A woman addressing issues of violence, marginality and life in the countryside in the Peruvian cinema of the 80s… Who would have financed something like that?”, She counted.

Lights, camera, Marianne

Despite the difficulties and obstacles that were never lacking in Peru, she opted to stay in our country. “I stayed here because the projects followed one after another. I started working on short films after finishing university, then moved on to medium and then feature films. Before dedicating myself to directing, I did production and worked a lot on the technical side. I have carried many cables before and after being a director. It was a good time to make movies in Peru thanks to the law that was passed in 1972, which promoted the production and exhibition of national cinema. A large part of the filmmakers of my generation began to work for that law, ”she recalled.

Although this law allowed that generation to work, it was also a time of censorship that Marianne Eyde experienced in the first person, as her first short film was censored, while her film “Los ronderos” (1980) was condescendingly approved. “They told me that they approved it because no one was going to go see it. I premiered it in Cajamarca, Chiclayo, Lima and other places, and there were more than half a million viewers,” she said.

Other emblematic films of his are “Life is one” (1992) or “Coca Mama” (2004)

His short and feature films are of a social and political nature. He went from costumbrista shorts to more anthropological and socioeconomic things. Except for his film “La Carnada” (1999), his stories have always been more linked to peasant communities. “It was rare at that time to see a woman embark on these issues. I’m not saying there were no women. There have always been and there are women promoting cinema. For example, Nora de Izcue, María Ruiz, whose concern for the technical part is impeccable. Also Pilar Roca, as a producer… And now there are magnificent professionals”, she pointed out at the time.

The dream cinema

In that 2019 interview, Marianne Eyde referred with some sadness to the impossibility of handing over her works to the Peruvian State, given that we lack a cinematheque. “I am waiting for the creation of the cinema library to be able to deposit the copies of my films and the research documents. I am waiting for the law to be enacted to empty my closets, ”she said then, between smiles.

A few weeks ago, regarding the publication in this newspaper of a note on the need to create a national cinematheque, Marianne Eyde told me, through her daughter, that she considered it necessary for the National Library of Peru (BNP) to be who manages said cinematheque, as it is the body that reaches the most people.

The lack of an up-to-date national audiovisual archive dedicated to cinema makes access to its films very difficult. Some of them can be found on the Peruvian streaming platform Cineaparte “and in regional markets”, as the director once pointed out, clearly referring to the pirated copies that could be found in the markets of various locations where she had recorded. It is curious that in her last days she has dedicated more than one thought to the dream shared by all moviegoers. So long, Marianne. We’ll see you, hopefully soon, at the cinematheque.