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1 X 60'
Format: Red One / HDV
Status: Pre-Production
Format: Red One / HDV
Status: Pre-Production
Brief Synopsis
The Shoeshine Boys is the moving story of three boys in Bolivia
who shine shoes for a living, regarded as the most demoralizing
profession in the country. So demoralizing, in fact, they choose to
wear masks, a symbol, which simultaneously excludes them from
society while creating solidarity amongst them.
Synopsis
Each day more than 1,000 boys take to the streets of La Paz,
Bolivia to do what many consider to be the most demeaning and
demoralising work in the country: shine shoes. Shoeshine boys
have such lowly status that they hide their faces in shame behind
woollen balaclavas. The children, known as lustrabotas, dart around
like phantoms, dodging shop owners who shake them down and
motorists who try to run them into the gutter.
The lustrabotas, ranging in age from 8 to 17, live a life of total
deprivation in La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. Many
sleep rough on the streets and are regular users of drugs. Some of
the children have been sent home or harassed by schoolteachers
because their hands are stained with polish, or beaten by their
parents for not bringing home enough money.
It is easy to interpret their masks as sinister, but this is not the
case. They wear them to hide their identity, as it is seen as a social
stigma to be a lustrabota. The mask is also thought to represent a
sense of solidarity amongst the boys, a brotherhood. This film tells
the story of three of these boys.
Meet Enrique Lozoya, an articulate eight year old who has just
quit school to become a lustrabota upon the request of his parents.
Short on money and food they forced him to quit his education, and
sent him off to the bustling streets of La, Paz to work for pennies.
Carlos Mamani is 15-years-old but is already regarded as an
old-hand, having worked as a lustrabota for five years. He is
regularly bullied and as a consequence suffers low self esteem.
Felix is 19-years-old and without parents or a home. He has
been shining shoes for over 10 years. His dream: to move to
America. Unfortunately, with each passing year the gap between his
dreams and his reality widens. To take the edge off this fact he
uses drugs, numbing whatever feelings he has left in his body,
whatever hopes he has left in his heart, whatever goals he has left
in his mind.
Hector Alonso is one of the very rare cases of lustrabotas who
managed to fight their way out of the bottom rung in society. He is
the manager of one of Bolivia’s largest banks and continues to
reach out to the boys to remind them there is indeed a light at the
end of the tunnel.
The Shoeshine Boys is an observational documentary taking
you into the heart of this unique and heart-breaking story through
the eyes of our three protagonists. The film will be made with the
support of Creative Corners, a non-profit based in Bolivia who has
worked with the lustrabotas for the past three years.
The Shoeshine Boys is the moving story of three boys in Bolivia
who shine shoes for a living, regarded as the most demoralizing
profession in the country. So demoralizing, in fact, they choose to
wear masks, a symbol, which simultaneously excludes them from
society while creating solidarity amongst them.
Synopsis
Each day more than 1,000 boys take to the streets of La Paz,
Bolivia to do what many consider to be the most demeaning and
demoralising work in the country: shine shoes. Shoeshine boys
have such lowly status that they hide their faces in shame behind
woollen balaclavas. The children, known as lustrabotas, dart around
like phantoms, dodging shop owners who shake them down and
motorists who try to run them into the gutter.
The lustrabotas, ranging in age from 8 to 17, live a life of total
deprivation in La Paz, the highest capital city in the world. Many
sleep rough on the streets and are regular users of drugs. Some of
the children have been sent home or harassed by schoolteachers
because their hands are stained with polish, or beaten by their
parents for not bringing home enough money.
It is easy to interpret their masks as sinister, but this is not the
case. They wear them to hide their identity, as it is seen as a social
stigma to be a lustrabota. The mask is also thought to represent a
sense of solidarity amongst the boys, a brotherhood. This film tells
the story of three of these boys.
Meet Enrique Lozoya, an articulate eight year old who has just
quit school to become a lustrabota upon the request of his parents.
Short on money and food they forced him to quit his education, and
sent him off to the bustling streets of La, Paz to work for pennies.
Carlos Mamani is 15-years-old but is already regarded as an
old-hand, having worked as a lustrabota for five years. He is
regularly bullied and as a consequence suffers low self esteem.
Felix is 19-years-old and without parents or a home. He has
been shining shoes for over 10 years. His dream: to move to
America. Unfortunately, with each passing year the gap between his
dreams and his reality widens. To take the edge off this fact he
uses drugs, numbing whatever feelings he has left in his body,
whatever hopes he has left in his heart, whatever goals he has left
in his mind.
Hector Alonso is one of the very rare cases of lustrabotas who
managed to fight their way out of the bottom rung in society. He is
the manager of one of Bolivia’s largest banks and continues to
reach out to the boys to remind them there is indeed a light at the
end of the tunnel.
The Shoeshine Boys is an observational documentary taking
you into the heart of this unique and heart-breaking story through
the eyes of our three protagonists. The film will be made with the
support of Creative Corners, a non-profit based in Bolivia who has
worked with the lustrabotas for the past three years.
Photos Credit: Phil Clarke-Hill
Woolfcub needs your
support to make this film.
Please donate now to help
fund our trip to La Paz,
Bolivia. No donation too
small. Thank you!
support to make this film.
Please donate now to help
fund our trip to La Paz,
Bolivia. No donation too
small. Thank you!
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