The catalogue of Colombian short films, a PROIMAGENES Colombia initiative supported by the Film Development Fund (FDC), announced the shortlist for its third edition at the Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM). In total, there are six short films in this new volume that will have the opportunity to be sent to approximately 80 international events for their festival tour.
On July 29, as part of the activities in the Bogotá Audiovisual Market (BAM), the most important audiovisual market in the country, the short films selected for the third volume of REFRESH - Colombian Short Film Catalogue, a program that is part of Proimágenes Colombia’s international promotion strategy and supported by the Film Development Fund (FDC), were announced. REFRESH aims to accompany each year a select_number of Colombian short films in the design and implementation of a distribution plan and national and international circulation, both at festivals and markets. The particular strengths of each selected work were identified, as well as the appropriate exhibition channels, spaces for exchange, and future partnerships for the development of the filmmakers’ next projects.
For this year’s edition of short films produced between 2020 and 2021 (which have not yet had a world premiere), the selection was: Sin asunto, directed by Guillermo Moncayo and produced by Emmanuel Chaumet, Mathilde Delaunay, Franco Lolli, Capucine Mahé, and the production house Ecce Films, co-produced with Evidencia Films, a project that was awarded the stimulus Aide au programme CNC (National Center of Cinema and Image) - Région Ile de France. The short film follows a zookeeper who, just as he is trying to recreate a relationship with his estranged daughter, suffers a serious traffic accident. At the same time, on the other side of the world, a man experiencing episodes of sleep paralysis writes an email to break a long family silence.
Abrir monte, an experimental film directed by Maria Rojas Arias and produced by Andrés Jurado and La Vulcanizadora, takes us back to July 19, 1929 to a town in Colombia, where a group of shoemakers fought to improve the living and working conditions in the country: "Los bolcheviques del Líbano, Tolima." Her revolution lasted only one day, but Aura says that, to this day, her rebellion still has a chance to continue. The short film was a recipient of the Film Development Fund in the Short Film Production category in 2020 and received the Next Generation Award from the Prince Claus Foundation for Culture and Development (The Netherlands).
El video, by Omar E. Ospina Giraldo, produced by Diana Carolina Ospina Giraldo, winner of the Barranquilla Culture Secretariat’s 2019 German Vargas Cantillo Stimulus Portfolio competition, tells the story of Jesús and Noé, two Venezuelan immigrants who make a living working downtown for a business called ‘El video,’ and how they both must go through an uncomfortable situation to earn extra money.
Fresas salvajes, directed by Juana Lotero López and produced by Mercedes Gaviria, Juan David Mesa, Daniel Alberto Sánchez and Juana Lotero, follows Andrea, who, moved by her admiration for her older sister and her interest in learning about her world, will be immersed in a party full of unexpected experiences. A night that will mark the end of her childhood. The project was selected at the Equinoxio University Festival and received a grant from the Film Development Fund in the Short Film Production category.
Two-spirit by Monica Taboada Tapia, produced by Beto Rosero and Guerrero Films, which is a drama that follows Georgina, an indigenous trans woman experiencing a lonely and cruel life in the desert, even more so after surviving an attack by some neighbors in her ‘rancheria’, a place where no one understands who she is.
Finally: Zarzal, directed and produced by Sebastián Valencia Muñoz, which was a recipient of the Film Development Fund in the Short Film Production category in 2018. The story is set in the year 1990, where William and his son Jacobo go for a walk. The towns and seaside resorts overflow with simple people who share the joy of sunny Sundays amidst the dark presence of drug dealers and hit men. Jacobo’s innocent admiration will show that death lies behind the idyll of happy days. This may be their last day together.
