Focus On Colombia

The main topics of FOCUS ON: COLOMBIA revolve around change, transformation, and upheaval. How are the country’s challenges reflected in the short films produced today? We have chosen four areas for this focus program which explore the feelings and incidents that define this country.

UNEXPECTED PERSPECTIVES shows unusual, animated, and experimental films from recent years. One time it’s the paintings in a museum that change, and another time it’s the skyscrapers of Bogotá that virtually shoot up like mushrooms out of the ground. Each film portrays its own personal view of the change. OFF THE MAIN ROAD steps outside of urban areas and heads to the countryside, exploring the factors that endanger this lifestyle. Migration into cities is caused by more than new technologies and poverty. BETWEEN ROUTINE & CHAOS focuses on the hustle and bustle of the big city. These films show their protagonists as they attempt to take control of their lives, which have come unraveled, all the while subtly questioning the extent to which politics is responsible for this chaos. And finally our retrospective LOOKING BACK: LUIS OSPINA & CARLOS MAYOLO sets the framework for the history of cinema in Colombian short film of today by showing gems from two well-known filmmakers from the 1970s.

The city of MADRID and Europe’s overseas territories in the CARIBBEAN round off this year’s FOCUS ON and explore ways of life that we are seldom exposed to.