It All Started at the End

Based on the only four surviving shots of the first Colombian silent film, MARÍA (1921), by directors Máximo Calvo (Colombia) and Alfredo del Diestro (Spain), IN SEARCH OF ‘MARIA’ combines historical research, interviews, and scenic reconstruction to rescue the memory of a lost film.

Experimental film inspired by Andy Warhol's 'Sleep'.

In 2018, a group of filmmakers calling themselves "Los Quietos" set out to make a film essay on a hypothetical syndrome of stillness in the Republic of Colombia. To this end, they invite Colombian documentary master Luis Ospina, presidential candidate Gustavo Petro and writer Juan Gabriel Vásquez to give them clues to delve into the history, geography and idiosyncrasy of Colombia, a country that, paradoxically, has very little of stillness. For unknown reasons, the project remained unfinished.

Using the unfinished film, ANGELITA Y MIGUEL ÁNGEL, by Andrés Caicedo and Carlos Mayolo, as a structuring device, friends of prolific film critic and writer Andrés Caicedo, an unforgettable figure of the group of Cali in the 1970s who left an incredible amount of texts, reflect upon his life, his work, and his suicide at the age of 25, testify to his influence in the cultural life of Colombia, and remember his strong and touching personality.

'A Ballad for dead children' is a tribute to Andrés Caicedo and Cali and it's group, as the seed of a cinematographic phenomenon, but it goes one step further. Testimonies and fragment readings compose, together with a very powerful archive material, the story of a story that has a deep sense and cinematographic interest: the story of Andrés and his eternal fascination with horror literature and cinema b, the of the boy who was born to write, that of the young man who decided to mock death by planning his own ending. A film that tries to maintain the difficult balance on the fine line that separates and unites the two: man and work, work and man, in an eternal and indissoluble way.

The documentary Sin Telón celebrates the national artistic values of Teatro La Candelaria, recognized both nationally and internationally as one of the leading Latin American experimental theater groups. The film highlights the extensive career of Santiago García while also portraying the everyday life and unique working methods of this dedicated ensemble of artists from Teatro La Candelaria.

This two-part documentary series made for regional television captures a crucial moment in Cali and Ospina's relationship with its city: a crossroads where the break with the city of youth becomes inevitable and painful. The first part, Cali plane X plane, is a counterpoint of image and sound on the destruction of architectural heritage. The second, Goodbye to Cali / Ah, Goddess Kali !, brings together the opposing testimonies of local artists who have dealt with the theme of the city and the devastators who have insisted on destroying it.

Roberto Hurtado suffers from a rare disease that requires massive transfusions of blood from children or adolescents. His son blackmails three employees to get blood for him and they resort to unscrupulous methods to obtain it.

The life of Pedro Manrique Figueroa, a pioneer of collage in Colombia, is both incomplete and contradictory. Taking his life and work as a pretext, this mockumentary takes the viewer on a journey through history from the year 1934 up until 1981, when the artist mysteriously disappeared from view.

An outcast looks for a glass of water in the house of a single woman, he notices that she is industrious yet repulsive and resolves¸ under the guise of love¸ to exploit her as a servant. After some drunkenness and beatings¸ the woman decides to take revenge; taking advantage of one of these drunkenness¸ when he has fallen asleep in a hammock¸ he sews the hammock around the edges and throws a pot of boiling water on it.

August 6, 1956 during the military dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla. A military convoy loaded with dynamite explodes in the center of Cali, destroying a good part of the traditional buildings of the city and exposing the roots of some houses that for years had kept the secret stories of their inhabitants.

A naked body curls up with a broken TV.

In an old and mysterious tropical mansion cohabit the supposed owner, a friar, a convalescent pilot, the Haitian servant, the mercenary guardian and the Machiche, a mature and dominant female. A young model arrives there to unleash all kinds of passions.

Driven by the music and dancing that she finds along the way, a teenager leaves home and not minding the consequences, is willing to try everything that this provocative and tolerant city has to offer.

Two young people from the wealthy class who meet and complement their lives by filling the holes that they themselves had created within themselves. A film that mixes innocence, surrealism, comedy, drama and psychosis.

Colombia receives the indemnity for Panama and accepts foreign credit to undertake development works, which increases the number of workers, although with poor wages and terrible working conditions. María Cano, a political activist, began her fight for the conditions of salaried workers and for the fundamental rights of the population.