Raccaya Umasi

Overview

Sitting in a dark room, a group of people look at projected images of clothing found in a mass grave. As the images pass through the screen, memories of what happened surface. In 1983, the Shinning Path kidnapped more then 40 people from the Andean community of Raccaya (Ayacucho, Peru). Men, women and children were taken to the neighboring village Umasi, where members of the military found them, killed them, and disappeared their bodies. More than 20 years later, forensics and advocate groups project the images of the unearthed clothing to help the relatives of the victims recognize their loved ones and claim their bodies. Raccaya Umasi is an experimental documentary that invites the public to think about memory's role on trauma and healing.