Taquile Island

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Resting in between the Andes Mountains of Bolivia and Peru lies one of the largest lakes on earth, Lake Titicaca. Here you’ll find a small island of 2,000 farmers, fisherman, and artisans.  No police, no government, no problem. Welcome to Taquile Island. 

In April of 2019, I had recently finished my first feature documentary. After two years of work, I was burnt out creatively. I had lost the enthusiasm that I once had for filmmaking. I knew it was only temporary, but it was affecting me. I decided to take a small vacation to Lake Titicaca to focus on what I loved so much about this medium, to get back to why I started doing this in the first place. I gave myself no expectation other than to get my creative muscles flexing again, to enjoy the process. With one camera, one microphone, and a drone, I set off to Lake Titicaca. 3 hours into the middle of Lake Titicaca lies Taquile Island. I stayed with a man named Alipio Wata Cruz, recommended to me by my brother and others based in Peru. The few tourists that visit Taquile Island stay for half a day, overnight at most. I stayed for four days, convincing Alipio and his family to show me their normal routine around the island. There isn't much to do in Taquile, so I had plenty of time to film, explore, and ask questions. But that was the point. Those four days of filming and months of editing have resulted in a short documentary unlike most of my previous work. It is rough, immediate, and personal. I typically make a point of never inserting myself in my films, but this film was to be different. You can hear me ask questions, poking and prodding to learn what I could about the island and the people. Nothing was pre-planned, events occured as I was witnessing and experiencing them in the moment. I fell in love with this island. On one hand they are innocently unaware of the outside world, on the other hand slowly creeping toward modernization and all the benefits and pitfalls that come along with it. I tried to capture my connection to the humor and simplicity, but also the depth of this tiny culture. My plan was never to turn this into a 15 minute short documentary, I was just doing it for fun. But now that I think about it, that's how this whole career started in the first place.

I hope you enjoy the film - Eric Ebner