MEANDROS (MEANDERS) 23 October. 3-5 p.m. Room 12A325 Department of Geography, Media and Communications- Karstads Universitet (Sweden)
Directors: Héctor Ulloque & Manuel Ruíz. Medio de Contención Producciones. 93 min. Colombia: 2010. Spanish – English Subs. IDFA (Amsterdan, 2010) - VISIONS DU RÉEL (Nyon: Focus Colombia, 2010)- FICCI (Cartagena, 2011)
“Meanders is an undulating road that leads to different places on the same path. As a result, the river emerges as a symbol and literary metaphor. The river meanders define the sinuous trail that pushes the communities in the region closer and further apart”. Ulloque & Ruiz, 2010.
Director’s BIO: Héctor Ulloque and Manuel Ruiz are cofounders of the independent production house Medio de Contención Producciones. They have co-directed the documentaries Nukak (2011), about the last nomadic tribe of Colombia and Plenty of Evos: the coca growers of Chapare (2006), about the importance of the coca leaf in Bolivia, awarded best documentary in Biarritz and Caracas. Héctor Ulloque, based in Paris, studied a master in filmmaking at Sorbonne University and works as a freelance video editor and cameraman. Manuel Ruíz is a researcher graduated in History at Universidad Nacional de Colombia, studied a PhD in anthropology at EHESS- Paris and works in Bogotá. Currently they are recording Puerto Alvira, their third documentary about the Eastern region of Colombia.
SINOPSIS In the sides of the Guaviare River at the Eastern region of Colombia, years of drug trade, forced displacement and massacres have marked the daily life of the inhabitants. Meanders was recorded following the long course of the river in rural zones where the access is difficult due to the topographic conditions and the permanent presence of guerrilla, paramilitary groups and the Colombian Army.
Coord: Maria Luna Thanks to: El Perro que Ladra and Department of Audiovisual Communication and Advertising- Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
The observational documentary connects the storytelling of different communities to the visual metaphor of the meander, as a complex landscape that reflects the unpredictable dynamics of the armed conflict. A mosaic of micro-universes opens and closes during the film, showing how the armed conflict affects the life of indigenous communities and colonists that inhabit side by side. Resisting the very adverse conditions they tell us how their everyday life continues in the middle of a beautiful and uncertain region.