Ronald Alvarez Vera –
Nostalgia as an existentialist source through cinema

Through philosophy, we can access to understand our essence. Kierkegaard considers the most basic state of the human being is the aesthetic one. In this state, pleasure prevails over pain, since humankind always seeks to satisfy its desires. Nostalgia would be a state opposed to pleasure, humans run away from it because they do not want to connect with that inner space. Therefore, Nostalgia plays an important role that allows all individuals to enter into their existence, with all that it implies, immersing the self in good or bad memories and frustrated dreams. We need the deepness, the pain, to reach the dark side of our being in order to see our own reflection. Undoubtedly, nostalgia causes great pain, but we need it to know ourselves, to transmute, or, as Derrida mentions, to deconstruct reality and thus achieve transcendence. Some film artists have managed to show that spectrum of human beings, such as Tarkovsky and Akira Kurosawa from their respective and different ways of making films. Some elements such as silence, water, darkness, dreams, the mystical, the banal, the irony, or the irrational create a nostalgic atmosphere that inevitably invites the viewer to enter his own nostalgic atmosphere and thus begins the existentialist philosophical activity within each person.

Biography:

I am 35 years old. I am from Ecuador.  My major is in Philosophy. I studied online because in that way I was able to work and pay for my degree. I have done several interdisciplinary courses and participated in conferences over these years to expand the horizon of my knowledge. Philosophy helps us to question our reality/illusion and reconstruct it. In order to complement my formation and vocation in understanding and helping others, last year I started a degree in Psychology. I have worked as a Philosophy teacher in several schools in Chile and also in Ecuador. I have taught courses like History of Philosophy, Philosophy of mind, Philosophy of Music, Metaphysics, Modern Philosophy, and Literature to name a few.  However, is not only about work. Teaching is my passion. I have a great opportunity to teach and share all I can when I´m in a classroom full of students but I also learn a lot from them. 

I play the guitar, and charango (Andean guitar) and like to go hiking. I have done volunteer work in disability medical institutions. I try to live as a thinker, which means being kind, respectful, curious, brave, responsible, empathic, a good worker, and especially a good human being.