“The lake was our mother, our father. Now, we are orphans.” The words of Rufino Choque echoed across the windswept desert that had been the thriving Lake Poopó. The Uru community lived in floating houses and spent weeks on their boats in the lake; hunting and fishing was their main source of subsistence. But industrial mining contaminated and diverted Lake Poopó’s tributary streams, which, along with extensive drought, caused the lake’s waters to disappear entirely by 2016. Despite its disappearance, the Urus continue to call themselves qotzuñis—their ancestral word for “people of the lake.”
This documentary short was produced in 2023 alongside Centro de Ecología y Pueblos Andinos (CEPA) and Fundación de Pueblos de Montaña y Derechos Ambientales, two environmental advocacy groups based in Oruro, Bolivia. To learn more about the organizations, visit the following links:
For inquiries, the filmmakers can be reached at info@qotzuni.org
A deeply moving and immeasurably significant cinematic masterpiece set in the Bolivian Altiplano and its Uru indigenous community, whose lives were once inextricably linked to the rhythms of Lake Poopó. The unimaginable has become reality — this vital water source has disappeared, leaving the population to face profound cultural and economic consequences. “Qotzuñi: People of the Lake” is a powerful tribute to their resilience, their way of life, and the urgent global crisis of climate change and environmental exploitation.
DOC NYC Grand Jury Statement, 2024
Awarded Grand Jury Prize at 15th DOC NYC's Shorts Competition
In grand images and poetic commentary by the Uru people, who have lived in Bolivia for centuries, Qotzuñi: Hombres del Lago [The People of the Lake] tells the story of the disappearance of Lake Poopó, the result of extensive exploitation of the earth by mine operators combined with climate change. The lake has been dry since 2016 and only a crust of salt remains. The Uru, the people of the lake, have been deprived of their livelihood, as they lived from and with the lake, as historical photos and their impressive stories show. A carefully staged symbolic image makes it clear that we are all in the same boat. An all-round cinematographic masterpiece by Gastón Zilbermann and Michael Salama.
NaturVision Filmfestival Jury, 2024
Awarded the Best Short Film Prize at 22nd NaturVision
Gastón Zilberman is a social and environmental storyteller based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He works on different projects with the goal of creating empathy and awareness about the consequences of climate change and human overdevelopment, especially with communities in South America. His work has been published in National Geographic, and in the Sony World Photography Awards 2024, among others.
Gastón's work can be found at
https://gastonzilberman.com/
Michael Salama is multimedia producer from Pelham, New York. His documentary and research work focuses on the history of equal access to freshwater in arid regions across the Americas. He created the 2023 Youth Climate & Conservation Summit, an intercontinental conference of environmental leaders at Princeton University. Qotzuñi: People of the Lake, was created as part of an undergraduate research thesis, and is his first production credit.
Fluid Identities: The Hydrosocial History of the Uru Communities of Lake Poopó is the thesis written in tandem with this film. It can be found here.
Michael can be reached at michaelsalama19@gmail.com.