Thousands gather for movie marathon in La Paz

In Bolivia today around 1,224 cinema fans began a special type of mass film marathon at the MegaCenter cinema in La Paz, in which they are to watch 39 movies without sleeping, aiming to promote cinema culture.

The marathon began around 10AM this morning in the centre of the city and is seen to continue until next Tuesday at midday according to Ariel Rodríguez the head of Marketing at the MegaCenter cinema, where the event is taking place.

The greatest challenge for competitors throughout the competition is that they are not allowed to sleep. They can have breakfast, lunch and dinner with a maximum rest time of half an hour, but without leaving the cinema screen for more than fifteen minutes between movies.

The company, who will be repeating the marathon in its Santa Cruz branch on the 19th March and on the 9th May in Cochabama, have mentioned that the competitions are set in place to boost and stimulate cinema culture in Bolivia.

According to other news sources, the current record to beat is Canadian Suresh Joachim and German Claudia Wasra who have the Guinness record for watching 57 films in 123 hours and ten minutes in New York, 2008.

The films they’ll be playing are said to be “good quality films and some of the best releases” for competitors, to whom the 70% competing are aged between 18 and 25 years old.

The winner will take away a motorcycle and a year’s free entry at MegaCenter, which opened in 2010, with 18 screens, making it the largest cinema complex in South America.