Profiles: Nicolás Rincón Gille | Proimágenes Colombia

Nicolas Rincon Gille is the director of Noche herida (Wounded Night) (2017), Colombian documentary premiered in Brussels and Colombia. He is also director of Tantas almas (Valley of Souls) (2020), winner of the Golden Star, highest award of the Marrakech International Film Festival.
 
Rincon Gille was born in Bogota, on August 12, 1973. In 1997, he graduated as economist from the National University of Colombia. He then decided to move to Brussels in order to study filming in the Higher National Institute of Performing Arts and Diffusion Techniques, known as INSAS, where he graduated in photography direction in 2003.
 
He directed the short films País (Country), in 2002; Azur, in 2003; and Après, in 2005. After this, he started working with oral tradition and violence in the Colombian countryside, through a trilogy entitled Campo Hablado, which started with the documentary En lo escondido (Those Waiting in the Dark) (2007), winner of the Joris Ivens Award, the France Library Award at the Cinéma du Réel Festival and the Audience Award at the RIDM in Montreal.
 
The second part would come in 2010 with Los abrazos del río (The Embrace of the River) that received the Montgolfière d’or Prize at the Nantes Festival de 3 continents and the Hors frontières Award at Clermont Ferrand. This trilogy ends with Noche herida (2017), that received the India Catalina Award for Best Feature Film at the Colombian Cinema Official Competition of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival –FICCI- 56; a Mention by the Jury at Cinéma du Réel, Paris, 2015; the First Prize at the MARFICI; the Bronze Heart at the International Film Festival The Heart of Slavonia; Mention by the Jury at RISC, Marseilles 2015; and the Documentary Award  at 2015 SCAM.
 
With respect to Noche herida, the director stated: "I was interested in discovering what the violence had left in displaced peasants; what had happened to their traditions and customs and how these could be rebuilt in the city ".
 
In 2016, he directed the documentary short film Besos fríos (Cold Kisses), produced by VOA films, CBA and Medio de Contención.
 
His most recent feature film, Tantas almas, received the Script Writing Incentive and the Production Incentive from the Film Development Fund–FDF- in 2013 and 2016, respectively. As a project, the film participated in the Co-Production Forum at the San Sebastian Festival (2015) and in L`Atelier, Cinefondation, at Cannes Festival 2016.
 
During 2019, Tantas almas received important recognition: It was the only Latin American film to compete in the Official Selection at the XIV Rome Film Festival. It was world premiered at the Busan International Film Festival, South Korea. It also participated in the Marrakech Film Festival (Morocco), where it received the highest award: The Golden Star to Best Feature Film. It participated in the Nantes Festival de 3 Continents (France) where it got a Special Mention of the Jury and in Tromso (Norway).

Tantas almas started 2020 representing Colombia in the Voices Main Programme at the Rotterdam International Film Festival -IFFR, a section that gathers every year outstanding films that could become future classics of cine art. Finally, known in English as Valley of Souls, it was part of the Official Competition at the Glasgow Film Festival 2020, within the section Window on the World, dedicated to completely different and bright films awaiting to be experienced.

Currently, Nicolas Rincon Gille has another project in development phase, the collective documentary Mapa Mudo, produced by Gusano Films from Colombia and Gema Films from Argentina.  

March 2020.