Discoveries from Colombia World Cinema

An unsociable man lives alone with his dog Lula, his only company. He is constantly feuding with his upstairs neighbors, but no matter how hard he tries, he can never seem to get his own back on them. His best weapon? Noise.

Amid a political crisis, on the border between Colombia and Venezuela, an Andean woman, her husband, and brother live on looting travelers. However fate pushes her to the brink of illusion and getting lost in mysterious dreams.

It is the final night for a 15-year-old girl before leaving the neighborhood where she grew up in a hilly suburb of Medellin. At midnight, she looks for the opportunity to meet again in secret with her 18-year-old boyfriend, Damián. He has just been transferred from prison to an undisclosed location to serve house arrest. A violent score-settling abruptly ends the clandestine meeting of these two impossible lovers.

Felipe, a young lazy and insensitive stock trader, begins to see subtitles of the people he talks to: the subtext of what they really mean. Sara, his best friend, a young translator, is the only one whose words he cannot see subtitled, perhaps because she truly understands him and speaks to him with transparency. To stop seeing the subtitles, Felipe must learn to truly listen to the language of others.

A group of chigüiros is displaced by a highway, hundreds of fish mysteriously turn upstream dead, and a community is affected by the rising Guayuriba River. Meanwhile, the Joropo exalts a Llano that in reality is in agony. Narrated by Nórida Rodríguez, this documentary is a chorus that reveals an open secret: the Joropo is more politics than culture.

The documentary narrates the story of three families of different sociocultural conditions that try to acquire a home in the city of Bogotá (Colombia). Through their stories, the spaces they inhabit and their daily problems, the film accounts for the dreams, worries and failures that thousands of Colombian families face in their desire to get their own home, under unstable working conditions and in the context of an ambitious real estate market.

Between 1950 and 1960, members of Opus Dei arrived in Colombia to expand their influence in Latin America. In 2021, the complaint against this organization by 43 women for trafficking and exploitation reopened the historical wound. In an exercise of imaginative memory, a group of actresses enters an abandoned school to create a play inspired by those silenced lives.

"The School at Rincon Santo" (1963) was written, directed, and narrated by James Blue as part of his "Colombia Trilogy." Stevan Larner is the film's cinematographer. Its subject concerns the people of the mountain village of Rincon Santo, Colombia, in which the townspeople came together to build a community school with the support of Alliance for Progress funding. The film was produced by the United States Information Agency (USIA) for audiences outside of the United States.

It is the year of grace of 1950. Ignacio (11) is celebrating his First Communion, a step that, according to catholics, puts him closer to God and opens up a space for him in the believers community. Communion implies, he will have enough grace to go to Paradise one day. It is also the day he is declared as a “conscious” person. However, from long time before, his tutor, sister Josefa, and the priest of the church, have said terrible things about his dead father, a communist that by now, as they say, should be burning in hell’s fire.

Ricardo Zanabria is a 27 year old young man who works in a car workshop. He began to consume bazuco and for this reason he frequents ‘El Bronx’, the most dangerous neighborhood in Bogotá. One day in this place, he hears screams coming from a house; he decides to enter, ignoring that he will not be able to escape from this 'hell', on May 28, the day of the Bronx raid.

Over eight nights in Bogotá, a young man’s connection with an elusive woman spirals into a restless obsession as he struggles to decipher the gap between the person he loves and the one he has imagined.

Five film-loving friends are ready to fully experience the 1995 Cartagena de Indias Film Festival, and since they want to be documentary makers, they simultaneously begin making one, about the city, about the characters they become, as they discuss the course of chance encounters that, for an intense moment, determine their lives.

At the outskirts of town, there is a communitary laundry where Ángela and her neighbors talk while they do their laundry. Just at the moment when the water service starts to work at everyone's house, Ángela finds the value of the little ritual that is disappearing little by little.

This documentary is based on field research (December 2022-January 2023) in which seven Panamanian families of Antillean descent (Jamaica, Martinique, Barbados, Trinidad, and Guyana) between Panama City and Colón agreed to meet and share their family memories of their experience as migrant workers who, in the 19th century, built the Panama Canal.

After looting and desecrating sacred lands, Hannibal must escape from one of the most dangerous tsars in the emerald trade, while clinging to a gem that could change his life. The gods of the Andes are menacing forces to be reckoned with, and Hannibal must offer a sacrifice to make up for his misdeeds.

Art is feeded of reality... a reality much more perverse and horrible than a gore movie. For a new generation of Filmmakers, they project through genre cinema their deepest horrors we live as society.

Alejandro is settled both in life and in love when his mother tells him he was conceived during 4 nights in the Carnaval de Barranquilla. Urged by his mother, Alejandro travels to Barranquilla to find his father.

Two groups of Venezuelan dancers, while preparing for a dance battle, survive at traffic lights in the streets of Medellín. A group reflection on love, family and identity, far from home.

Sofía, a curious and imaginative young girl, faces challenges at school as she begins to navigate the complexities of her mixed-race identity. As her art springs to life through vibrant and whimsical animations, the story delves into Sofia’s journey of self-discovery, capturing her confusion, resilience, and profound lessons about belonging. Sofia learns to embrace the shades that define her, blending love, culture, and individuality into a unique narrative.

Arriving at Movistar Fucks News” immerses us in the dizzying world of preparation, excitement and chaos behind an unprecedented event. We follow Camilo Pardo and Camilo Sanchez as they prepare to face their biggest challenge: to fill the Movistar Arena and conquer the audience with their irreverent show, Fucks News.

Based on an ancient legend and guided by the millenary song of the humpback whale, Choibá: The Dance of the Humpback Whale tells the story of a group of documentary filmmakers who decide to learn from the great journey of this cetacean, following its sacred migration from the coasts of the Colombian Pacific to the cold waters of Antarctica. A sensory, auditory, and visual journey that allows the viewer to enter a state of meditation and awareness, enabling them to reach their own conclusions about the importance of protecting and conserving the seas and all the living beings that inhabit them.

Voices of local citizens are woven with the memories of a correspondent and his archival material to provide an account of the beginning of the current political and social crisis in the Central African Republic, 10 years after the coup d'état that triggered it. A portrait of interrupted dialogue, the testimony of the discomfort and resistance of citizens facing enemies as familiar as they are unexpected. The documentary brings together the voice of exile and the vindication of the right to return and the innocence of a shared past. A story built from testimonies, memory, still photographs and voice notes.

Fuel to Fire is a single channel video that brings the viewer into a pagamento or payback of gold to a body of water. This ritual was performed for the wellbeing and conservation of the Paramo de Santurbán, a moorland ecosystem within the high mountains of Northwest Colombia, which holds large sought after deposits of gold. The pagamento is an indigenous ecological and economic fundamental protocol, that maintains the flow and balance of life cycles on earth.

A hot-headed taxi driver in Medellín has to repair his boss' AC at 5 AM. He is tested by a series of misfortunes, leading him on a self-questioning path.

Startled by the noise of disturbances in her neighborhood, Marta wakes up. Before heading to the living room for the wake of her son Javier, who died in the protests due to clashes with the police force, she silently prays in her room.

A mourning trip becomes a revelation for Pedro, as he takes part in rituals of toxic masculinity and becomes aware of his family's decay, wondering whether to defy his values or remain being part of the pack.

9-year-old Sués life hangs by a thread. Together, his father and brother take the risk of taking him out of the hospital to start a journey for keeping a promise forgotten over the years, in a race against the clock.

The happy summer atmosphere on the beach in the downtown area of the Colombian city of Cartagena is rudely disrupted by bulldozers and excavators dumping huge boulders in the surf. The work is to combat the dangers of rising sea levels caused by global climate change. To protect the coastline, this part of the beach will soon have to close: no more sunbeds and parasols, no more jet skis, no more seaside fun and games. But what are the regular visitors, beach vendors and lifeguards supposed to do now?

The last earthquake that struck Popayán in 1983 not only destroyed the Colombian city itself, but left lasting scars on the lives of its men and women that have been inherited by younger generations. Friends María José and Alejandra deal with the traumas of the past and the pain in their own way – through sunsets, art, poetry and cinema itself.

After a lifetime shared, Laura decides to talk to her father Fernando about political militancy and the revolutionary dreams of the 60's. In this generational dialogue, Laura looks for some clues to understand her own utopias and ideals in the face of the transmission she has received from her father and review the past, resignify the present and the memory of Fernando that fades over the years.

A victim of sex trafficking and rape, Johana is forced to leave her family and friends behind in her native Colombia for Argentina. Alone in a strange land, she earns a living as a bicycle delivery person, barely making enough money to pay the rent and send back home. Throughout the film, as we watch her go on with her daily routine and try to find a space for herself as a Black woman in Buenos Aires, we hear her reminisce about her life back home as she shares her fears, disappointments and hopes.

Rosa is a country girl who has managed to escape from a paramilitary massacre in which her whole family was brutally murdered. Hernando is a man in his forties who is determined to find his aunt Graciela, the only living relative whose testimony will allow him to inherit a substantial amount of money. On the contrary Alejandra, Hernando's wife, thinks that no money should justify the risk of putting themselves in the midts of a 'red zone'. Blinded by his ambition, Hernando convinces his wife to keep on with their money quest. Both the couple and the girl end up being captured by members of a local guerrilla. Finally, the gruesome Colombian conflict will decide their destinies in a totally unexpected way.

Two close friends and fellow filmmakers maintain an intimate, transoceanic filmic correspondence between Galicia and Colombia over the course of three years. In these filmed letters both authors are open and familiar, meditative and confessional, making us participants in a sincere friendship.

A reflection on an unpunished event in recent Colombian history.

Two sisters, Ati and Mindhiwa, are part of the Arhuaca tribe, a Colombian indigenous culture. Their dream is to continue with their university studies, but they have no money and it is impossible for them to enter in to the National University.

Hector is an employee of an office that functions in a gigantic building where hundreds of persons live their daily routine. However, his gift for curiosity makes him realize that the building where he has always lived and worked has an exit. A series of procedures, obstacles and adversities will put to test Hector's patience.

Described by its director, Juanita Onzaga, as a work of ‘ancestral futurism’, this dizzying visual journey takes on the perspective of Sybille, the last woman on Earth, a planet where water no longer exists. She seeks to communicate with the spirit of water, a carrier and transmitter of more memory than humans could ever remember. Shot on Super 8, this sensorial trip finds fluid form to describe the end of the Earth as we as humans know it.

An experimental short film about "the joy of living in Colombia" and Kodak films

After a youth marked by limitations, Vilma (45) has finally achieved the privileged life she always dreamed of. In a beachfront house located in one of Costa Rica’s most exclusive tourist areas, she waits alone for the annual visit of her American partner, who sustains this lifestyle from afar. But this year, he doesn’t show up, cuts off communication, and the money begins to run out. Amid the overwhelming tourist atmosphere, Vilma is forced to face paradise without her “Prince Charming.”

Three friends at a birthday party decide to push their limits, triggering some of their sexual fantasies and deepest fears. One night, one shot, one chance to feel something different.

Experimental film about a lonely marginal man and his demented, personal visions of the apocalypse.

Erasmo y Estela, are an old couple that rarely go out of their house, one day they decide to take out an old disk player, clean the dust away and play some music. When they realise that the disk player is broken, they decide to get out of their home and face a whole new world.

While dealing with a strange being that lives inside her, a woman seeks to reconcile with her sister over an incident from their adolescence.

Cristian, an Afro-Colombian millennial from the Caribbean island of Tierra Bomba, must decide whether to continue acting or drop all his masks, and overcome his own fear to live his identity freely. Josephine, the director, follows Cristian for seven years across different countries during this quest for freedom.

Laura and Diego are interested in meeting someone to start a relationship. Laura has never used dating platforms and Diego has decided not to go back to dating apps. They both venture to explore an application designed for this purpose.

The Forgotten War: Colombia’s Battalion in Korea is a documentary that brings to light the little-known story of Colombia’s involvement in the Korean War (1950–1953). Through personal testimonies, rare archival footage, and geopolitical analysis, the film recounts how over 5,000 Colombian soldiers, organized as the Colombia Battalion No. 1, answered the United Nations’ call to support South Korea against the invasion by the North, which was backed by China and the Soviet Union. This marked Colombia’s first international military mission and the only Latin American combat presence in the conflict. Though long overlooked, this intervention laid the foundation for a “special” bilateral relationship between Colombia and South Korea that endures to this day.

There is nothing beyond the material search for mystery. Mystery exists made matter, and in this case, made light. Two young people meet in the middle of a mountain after dying. It seems that from their urban past there is still the flicker of colors strange to the vegetable as if it attracted them; it made them get caught and merge with luminous presences that emerge from the mountain and call to it, giving notice to a path that is heard when seeing the light.

Alejandro, the youngest of his recently deceased father's two sons, is brimming with anger, upset that his father and older brother have for so long committed his mother to a rural Colombian mental asylum. He's convinced that the place for his schizophrenic mother is at home with her loved ones, not in an institution. While on an unannounced visit, he kidnaps his mother to take her home with him once and for all – but Alejandro is soon overwhelmed by his mother's mental incapacities as they embark on a journey of love and commitment, of emotional and physical extremes.

When Rogelio Pataquiva is involved in a tremendous national conspiracy and becomes the most wanted man by the authorities, he has to go to his old group of friends he met in the military. He is thus accompanied by the strong Sergeant Mena, the mystic and deceitful Chindicué, the giant Arrechea and Loboguerrero. the aspiring Rambo, starts a wild adventure in the jungle, in the best style of the militia, to find the mysteries Fortress, where a group of mercenaries hides the secret that can prove that Rogelio is innocent and incidentally, save the very same Central Security Agency ...!