La Flor Settlers Synopsis
This film is a portrait of a small farming and herding village in the Misiones Jungle, Argentina. Testimonies of the arrival to the place with little or almost nothing are mixed with affective histories and the daily tasks of food production. La Flor Settlers is a pictorial and human documentary about the feeling of belonging and the struggle for the land.
About the Filmmaker
Born March 17, 1966, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Florencia Bohtlingk studied at the Prilidiano Pueyrredón School of Fine Arts, and Ernesto de la Cárcova School in Jorge Demirjián studio. She studied painting with Luis Felipe Noé and Gabriel Messil.
Between 1994-1995, Proa Foundation awarded her with a scholarship for Guillermo Kuitca´s workshop. In 1996, she made the scenery for the play Arles 1888 in the CC Ricardo Rojas theater. Between 2001-2004 Florencia lived in Paraje La Bonita, located in El Soberbio, Misiones rainforest. From 2004 to 2008, she taught painting at the Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center.
Since 1990, her work has been exhibited in Buenos Aires, New York, and Milan. Her works are in different private collections in Buenos Aires, New York, Paris, Chicago, Madrid, and Monaco.
In 2013, she published a book about 20 years of her work (1992-2012), edited by Maria del Carril. In 2015, she published a book with watercolors called Misiones, which is part of the People´s Collection of Argentine Art, published by Mansalva. During 2015 and 2016, she made La Flor Settlers. She currently lives and works between Buenos Aires and Misiones.
More from the Filmmaker
Twenty years ago, I started to go to La Flor. As a landscape painting artist, this wild place became a deep inspiration place for my work. Gradually, my focus shifted from the landscape to the local people, the settlers. Painting was not enough to record their simple and joyful life, their daily work with ox carts, and contact with the soil.
That’s when I decided to call upon cinematographic language. Based on a daily journal and interviews, I focused on stories of their arrival to this land, their minimal stories, their yearnings, and desires for the future.
