Making Home: Feminist Activism in Two Peruvian Audiovisual Projects

Sala Violeta and Chola Contravisual are two Peruvian female-led initiatives exemplifying a twenty-first-century feminism that questions social life from an intersectional approach. Sala Violeta is a digital platform promoting the creation and exhibition of short films made by women. Chola Contravisual is a transfeminist collective working on audiovisual production and various emancipatory projects directed at women and gender non-conforming individuals. As material and symbolic “homes” that nurture female creative talent, both projects align with what Rita Segato calls “politics in a feminine key” and can be seen as wagers of “worldmaking” following Amia Srinivasan's concept. Sala Violeta offers an alternative way of presenting and sharing audiovisual material and representing the filmmaker. Chola Contravisual resignifies the racial insult “chola” proposing a decolonial representation of Andean female identity connecting feminist principles with traditional cultural roots. This chapter discusses how the shorts Soy eterno and Edificio Central (in Sala Violeta) and the series Mejor chola que mal acompañada (produced by Chola Contravisual) revisit home and rootedness integrating female perspectives belonging to diverse racial, cultural, and geographical standpoints. Extending the concept of “home,” I read both projects as acts of care pushing for structural changes in how audiovisual work is understood, produced, and circulated.