Regarding the debates about cultural performativity, this paper analyze the power of the cinematographic image for producing guided social subjects and insubordinate political agencies. By analyzing Ecuadorian indigenist documentaries, the impasse of nationalist discourse sustained by mestizo intellectuals until the 80s is raised. Taking as case of studies Chimborazo. Testimonio campesino de los andes ecuatorianos (1979) by Fredy Elhers and Los Hieleros del Chimborazo (1980) by Gustavo Guayasamín, two paradigmatic documentaries of the period, this study aims to outline the social and political contradictions within the filmic text. The essay attempts to confront the denunciation proposed by documentaries tutor text with the claims of Indians that can be heard in the interstices of the account. By means of this confrontation, the essay tries to reveal the ambivalence of the indigenist discourse.