The first edition of the Colombian Film Festival Buenos Aires was held July 2-8. Among other film offerings, the event features a Luis Ospina retrospective with free admission
The festival was founded by a multidisciplinary group of filmmakers, political scientists, designers, and photographers of various nationalities, among them Colombians, Argentines, and Germans. This group of film lovers has formerly organized two cycles of Colombian cinema in the city of Buenos Aires and the festival was finally consolidated in July 2018 as a co-production between Cine.ca and Asociación Civil Creciente Cine Fértil, with the support of the Embassy of Colombia in Argentina, Proimágenes Colombia, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales (INCAA), Altair Professional Media, Cultural San Martín, Cosmos Cinema UBA, the City of Bogotá, and Xinermedia.
The first version of the Colombian Film Festival Buenos Aires—whose mission it is to turn Argentina into a new venue for Colombian culture and to take the two countries towards new horizons—arrives with a retrospective of films by Luis Ospina, the Cali director known for his feature films Pura sangre and Soplo de vida and short films such as Acto de fe, Asuncion, and Agarrando pueblo, co-directed with Carlos José Mayolo. In addition, he has directed over thirty documentaries, among them Andrés Caicedo: unos pocos buenos amigos, La desazón suprema: retrato incesante de fernando vallejo, Un tigre de papel, and most recently Todo comenzó por el fin.
The festival programming includes films such as El gurú y las FARC by Paula Schargorodosky, Señorita maría, la falda de la montaña by Rubén Mendoza, Las flores son para los muertos by Nicolás Jiménez, Killing Jeses (Matar a Jesús) by Laura Mora, Sin título: Tercer movimiento by Ricardo Perea and Julio Lamaña, La vaca by Juan Jiménez, Alirio by Camilo Andrés Guerrero, Nain by Felipe Paredes, La fotografía: Memoria, comunicación y poder by Diego Buenaventura, Epifanía by Anna Eborn and Oscar Ruiz Navia, Amazona by Clare Weiskopf, Elemento by Nina Paola Marín Díaz, Siembra by Angela Osorio and Santiago Lozano, 4 estaciones by Sergio Nicolás Pulido, La luz que nos queda by Gloria Isabel Gómez, Mariana by Chris Gude, The Animal’s Wife (La mujer del animal) by Victor Gaviria, Huevitos al microondas by Daniela Castillo, La madre de las madres by Wilson Arango, Jericó: The Infinite Flight of the Days by Catalina Mesa, and Paisajes de Isolda by Gloria Isabel Gómez. The festival is also hosting the Women—Image—Industry Workshops and the ARCO Co-production Forum.
Other Luis Ospina films screened as part of the retrospective include Acto de fe, Oiga vea!, Agarrando pueblo, En busca de maría, Ojo y vista: peligra la vida del artista, Nuestra película, Soplo de vida, La desazón suprema: retrato incesante de fernando vallejo, and Todo comenzó por el fin.
The two film cycles before the festival featured films such as Land and Shade (La tierra y la sombra) by César Acevedo, Oscuro animal by Felipe Guerrero, Un tigre de papel by Luis Ospina, Alias María by José Luis Rugeles, Sabogal by Juan José Lozano and Sergio Mejía Forero, Crab Trap (El vuelco del cangrejo) by Oscar Ruiz Navia, and Gente de bien by Franco Lolli. The short film section features Champi-ñón by Yesid Zúñiga Ordóñez, Juma by Víctor Guzmán, Billymensional by Juan Jiménez, Clausura de Jesús by David Barbosa García, De que ríe un payaso cuando ríe by Carlos Esteban Godoy, También se entierran moscas by Laura Plazas Ruiz, and Las chicas de las pijamas rosadas by Sergio Nicolás Pulido.
