Apeco Pure - Witnesses of my Life. Click Image for Video.

Judit Peralta - Director/Producer
Marisela Meier, Milagros Rodríguez and Lusbania Santos - Producers
Oliver Olivo - Director of Photography
Pedro Cruz - Camera Operator and Editor.

Short documentary

April 2009, Santiago, Dominican Republic.

Jesús Natalio Puras aka “Apeco” was considered to be one of the most important Dominican photographers. For more than 50 years, he photographed generations of families in Santiago de los Caballeros, weddings, baptisms, fifteen years' celebrations, events and openings ceremonies. He was Oliver Olivo's first photography teacher while studying architecture in 2002. During that semester, he suffered a stroke that nearly killed him. It took him about four years to recover, but he made it despite his old age. In 2009, a group of friends who were working on their thesis project at the PUCMM School of Communications invited Olivo to participate. It was a documentary film about Apeco.

The man Oliver thought was only a photographer turned out to be a performer, an actor and a painter. The group encouraged Oliver to collaborate on the documentary film as Director of Photography. An experience that he really enjoyed and that also helped him confirm what he had been feeling for some years: his passion for filmmaking. There was great teamwork and the project was a success at their school.

Apeco died nine months after the shooting.