How it all began

In 1990, as the year was ending, Jac Avila was in London working with Channel Four in the subtitling of his feature film Krik Krak Tales of a Nightmare. At the same time he was negotiating the pre-sale for a feature film then titled Pachamama, to be filmed in Bolivia. One afternoon Jac was called to meet with the head of acquisitions to close the deal.   That very evening the gulf war broke out and all of the funding of Channel 4 was directed to cover the war.. all deals were off.

Dissapointed but not discouraged,  Jac returned to New York and with Henriette Szabó formed the company to continue on the quest for funds to produce the now elusive film. They named the company Pachamama Films, as a homage to the project that was going to be the first in a list of many… or so they hoped.

Pachamama is the Aymara word for Mother Earth. There’s a fundamental place for the Pachamama in Aymara tradition and culture, it’s basic, it is the source of life, life itself. The earth is not seen as some out of the world goddess but rather as a natural living entity who must be respected and feared … an entity that is not immortal, but one who if push comes to shove will take care of herself.

Pachamama is also the word for The Beginning of all things, which refers to the universe, the cosmos, the mother of all things seen and unseen.  So Jac picked a name full of symbolism.

In 1992 Jac and Henriette went to Bolivia to plant the seeds of the project and everything else to come