BOGOTRAX
MEETING
BERLIN
Program : documentaries, conferences and talks
"... the essence of ghosts is that we never know if they are coming from the future or from the past..."
Discourse is taking place everywhere and critique is intensively produced through a multiplicity of foci whose simple juxtaposition (crossing or meeting) can produce interesting effects. The actions of the different crews articulating Bogotrax, in Bogotá or in Berlin, through different collectivities and inviting heterogenous public participation, are conducted in this sense: to use and reproduce new spaces for Discourse – for creative practices and discussion.
Bogotrax will always echo Bogota and, with it, a pleyade of ghosts - imaginaries and media-images, cultures and colonies - roughly described under one name : Colombia. That name could be the designation of a geo-political entity, but it could also function as a living symbol for an a-topical "place" – psychic and physical territories – whose identity (beyond the concepts of Individuality, Family, State and Nation) is precisely unclear.
However, social critical practices cannot be exhausted through analysis and discussion. They have their own life and produce, somehow, their own innovations and history. The question of the difference, syncronism and asyncronism, of theory and praxis remains the field for the proposal of new articulations, relations and non-relations, in between self-organized a-symmetric collectivities.
In this context (which is also the context for a larger program, that you can check on www.x-tractor.org), as an example we arbitrarily choose to insist upon, the following screenings, talks, and panel discussions, will take place :
THURSDAY 10, IN SAMA-CAFE (Samarita str. 32)
Starting at 18.00.
The question of the legitimacy of the social movements in the context of the Colombian armed conflict will lead the following program :
18 : 00
- Documentary :
LA FRONTERA DEL OLVIDO (“At the border of forgetfulness”).
Length: 44 min/ 2008/ spanish subtitles in english
Director: ONIC (Organización Nacional de Indígenas de Colombia)
Synopsis: A crisis of violence is afflicting a large number of indigenous people in Colombia. This documentary is an example of the different kinds of violence that surrounds nowadays the Awá, an indigenous community of the Nariño department in southwestern Colombia. The perpetrators, multiple and diverse, include right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas, and the Colombian army. Their attacks are abetted by an indifferent national government, and include the appalling accumulations of antipersonnel mines, and an aerial fumigation program to eradicate illegal coca plantations. The result has been shockingly large numbers of human rights abuses, massive forced internal displacement, widespread hunger, and breakdown of educational, health, and Awá cultural institutions. Another indigenous group, the Eperara Siapidara, who live closer to the Pacific Ocean, has also suffered from the violence, as have neighboring Afro-Colombian communities and poor small-scale farmers.
19 : 00
- DISCUSSION : indigenous social movement in the context of the Colombian armed conflict
A short discussion on this topic, centering on the example of the Colombian indigenous movement will be conducted by :
Rafael Castellanos and Carolina Tamayo (Activist living in Berlin having done studies on anthropology and political science in Colombia)
20 : 00
- Talk : "CRITIQUE OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE"
By
Christoph Fringeli -
The editor of DATACIDE, a zine for "noise and politics" published since 1997, will offer us a contribution to the nowadays critical concept of "armed struggle". This is a main topic Colombian nationals fear to talk about.
21: 00
Documentary :
EL PUTUMAYO EN LLAMAS ("The Putumayo in flames")
The director, Bernard Kratz, a former Berlin doctor active in different political scenes since the early 90's, will present his work and put it in the context of our discussion.
Length: 14: 51 min/ spanish subtitles in english
Director: Bernard Kratz
Synopsis:
This is a short documentary film about the indigenous Cofán people living in the Putumayo-Amazonas region, in Colombia. They are suffering from oil exploitation in their territories, bio-piracy and toxic-spraying (Plan Colombia). This is the documentary of an activist, never happy with his work, that thinks that the economic, political and military factors of the conflict in which the peasant and indigenous civil populations are the main victims, and have the same importance as social and cultural ones.
FRIDAY IN CAGLIOSTRO (Lenbach str. 10)
Starting at 18.00
The socio-political violence in Colombia has a complex structure that involves not just legal and illegal armed groups but also international capital. This truism is finally visible and the Colombian conflict can now appear in the way it always has been: involving not just local phenomena but also international interests. In order to explore the complex relations between these two levels – the articulation of local issues with international ones – we propose the following program :
- 18 : 00 - Documentary -
"PLAN COLOMBIA"
LENGTH: 60 min/ 2003/ english
DIRECTOR: Gerard Ungerman & Andy Brohy
SYNOPSIS: Documentary 2003 - Plan Colombia - CIA drug war hoax- Ever wonder about the futility of the drug war ?
- 19 : 00 - Conference -
"ROLLE DER PARAMILITÄRS IM RAHMEN
DER BEVÖLKERUNGSVERTREIBUNG
UND ILLEGALEN LANDANEIGNUNG IN KOLUMBIEN"
by Fabian Singelnstein - Geographer from the "Universidad Nacional de Colombia." He's member of the internationally acknowledged "Kolumbien-kampagne".
- 20 :00 - short documentary -
DEATH BY COCA
LENGTH: 15: 33 min/ 1999/ english
DIRECTOR: Journeyman’s Pictures
SYNOPSIS: The ruthless civil war between FARC guerrillas and the Colombian government may soon see some improvement. But in this film, we give a fast look at people who really suffer in the drug war : the coca farmers.
- 20.15 - Conference -
"KRIEG, TRANSNATIONALE UNTERNEHMEN
UND ENTWICKLUNGSVORHABEN"
by Raul Zelik - Writer and social-researcher whose published works about Colombia and Venezuela are well know in different left international scenes. In May 2009 he published an important book on the Colombian paramilitary phenomenon ( "Die kolumbianischen Paramilitärs - 'Regieren ohne Staat' oder terroristische Formen der Inneren Sicherheit" - Westfälisches Dampfbott Verlag).
- 21.15 - Documentary -
EL BAILE ROJO (THE RED DANCE) - About the genocide of the U.P.
LENGTH: 58:47 min/ 2003/ spanish subtitles in english
DIRECTOR: Yezid Campos Zornosa
SYNOPSIS: It’s the first documentary about the extermination of the U.P. (Union Patriotica), a political party in Colombia called to represent the left communist wing in a supposed democratic context. About 4000 of its members were killed in a genocide managed by politicians, paramilitaries and militaries in a plan cynically called "the red dance". The existence of the U.P. - and the guarantees for its political work - was then supposed to be a first solid step towards the negotiation of a definitive end to the armed conflict leaded by the State and the leftist rebel guerilla of the Farc.
Beside this two days, there also will be the following documentary-screenings and talks :
WEDNESDAY 9 AT KINDERBAUERNHOF (Leuschnerdamm 9- X-berg)
-19:00 -
BOGOTRAX 2006 REDSONANTE
LENGTH: 50:00 / 2007/ spanish and french subtitles in english
DIRECTOR: Moira Chappedelaine Vautier
SYNOPSIS: Since the beginning of the Bogotrax festival, in 2004 in Colombia, some documtaries about it have being made - all of them different in their purpose and intention. Nevertheless this one is not just a fine piece of documentary work. So far, it is also the most complete.
- 20 : 00 -
HAMILTON´S PHARMACOPEIA
LENGTH: 1:12 min / 2009 spanish subtitles in english
DIRECTOR: Hamilton Morris
SYNOPSIS: “There is an Amazonian frog called Phyllomedusa Bicolor or the Sapo which I have been reading about for years. It is totally different from the psychedelic toads found in North America. The Sapo’s venom produces an effect much closer to morphine than LSD, but really it’s not like either of those things. It’s a distinctly vomitous dissociative experience unlike anything else I’ve ever encountered. Some people think it’s a miracle opioid which will yield new non-addictive pain killers. Others think it’s a super-potent stimulant and appetite suppressant, and even a strange psychedelic capable of tuning hunters on to the mindset of their prey. In the 80s researchers found one of the constituents of Sapo venom in the urine of autistic children, and developed an entire theory of autism around it.” H.M.
SATURDAY 10 AT THE BLO-ATELIERS (Kaskelstr.55)
- 15: 30 - Talk -
„Detroit Chicago-den Haag Techhouse-electrobass & spacedisco“ von Gata Santa & Parche.
16:30 – Talk
„Estudiantes clandestinos sin papeles, otra manera de inmigrar“ by Felokuti
17:30 - Documentary
“Porto fluviale“
LENGTH: 1: 26 min/ 2004- 2006
DIRECTOR: Claudio Feliziani
SYNOPSIS: This video -document was shot in Rome between 2004-2006, in a squatted building with people living there. The work initiated as an investigation among migrant involve in the struggle for housing in Rome, ended up producing more questions than answers. The film is organized so that anyone can stop the screening at anytime to start with the discussion.
A talk with Eder, figure of the student movement in the 90’s in Colombia, exiled in Rome, will take place after the documentary.
19:00 – Talk
„Comunidades de resistencia en el marco del plan Colombia“ by Christian Garrido.
20:00 – Documentary
„Alerta Bogota! Rutas de la cultura urbana”
LENGTH: 52 min/ 2008
DIRECTOR: Diego Gomez Tibocha
SUNDAY 11 AT LOHMÜHLE (Lohmühlenstr.17)
19:00 - DOCUMENTAL:
FREKUENCIA KOLUMBIANA
LENGTH: 58 min / 2006 /spanish subtitles in english
DIRECTOR: Vanessa Gocksch
SYNOPSIS: Documentary about the HIP HOP in Colombia, trying to show all the different expressions and representations of this way to resist! MUSICAL RESISTENCE
20:00 – DOCUMENTAL :
BOGOTRAX 2006 REDSONANTE “INEDITO”
LENGTH: 20 min / 2009 /spanish subtitles in english
DIRECTOR: MARCIA JUZGA
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