Watch: Ancacoy (Short Film)
The short film reviews the case of Margarita Ancacoy, a cleaning woman at the University of Chile who was beaten to death on her way to work at 5:30 a.m. in June 2018 in Santiago de Chile.
Director: Nicole Bock Dupont
Writer: Nicole Bock Dupont and Maria Paz Gonzalez
Production Countries: Chile
Language: Spanish
Director's Statement: In the third semester of the Master in Management and Public Policy at the University of Chile, in the Department of Industrial Engineering, as Master's programs we joined the feminist demands of May 2018 in another format: we continued with our classes in our usual afternoon schedule and we talked about labor rights with the cleaning workers. We ask them about their contracts. A month later Margarita is murdered. At 5:20 am on her morning walk to work, a place no one saw her where she was killed.
Ancacoy is a deeply moving docudrama that you can watch exclusively on Cineshort. It tells the story of Margarita Ancacoy — a woman who would leave her home in the very early hours of the morning to work as a cleaner at the University of Chile. Out in the unsafe and dangerous streets before dawn, she was simply trying to earn a living. But one morning, her colleagues found her lifeless body.
While the tragedy of the murder is already overwhelming, what happened before it adds another layer to the story. A group of industrial engineering students had recently conducted a research project with the university’s cleaning staff, asking them questions about labor policies, worker contracts, the role of unions, and feminism. Just one month after that project, Margarita was murdered. The students created this documentary in her memory.
The film powerfully portrays the fear experienced by women who are forced to be out on the streets at unsafe hours and the heavy burden of financial necessity. I strongly recommend watching it. Enjoy the film.
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Cineshort is a global short film streaming platform dedicated entirely to high-quality short films from award-winning independent filmmakers. With a curated catalog spanning multiple genres, languages, and cultures, Cineshort offers a cinematic experience that is bite-sized yet impactful. Whether you have five minutes or thirty, there's always something worth watching!
