mamachoco hb2010

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MAMÁ CHOCÓ PROJECT

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Synopsis

Sit at his little 12 square meter hovel, made up of plastic and bamboo over

moisture and dirty soil, and the one that she shares with his husband "El Turco",

3 daughters and 3 grandsons, Paulina watches the people walk through themuddy streets of her neighborhood in Cali, the third city of Colombia in

importance and the one that receives more displaced people.

Paulina arrived 7 years ago to Aguablanca, a citadel at the east of the city

that homes more than a million displaced people from all over the country

most of them afro descendent of the Colombian pacific zone and from Chocó.

A dawn of 1997 in Salaqui, a town of Chocó, a strong buzz coming from

everywhere, woke Paulina and her family unexpectedly. Frightened, they

leaved their house, taking with them only the clothes they were wearing. After leaving their house they saw that the population was being bombed by “kafiros"

(military airplanes) as they call them. That day an air and land attack that lasted

several days began. They were thousands of men, women and children who

left Chocó.......they know they were expelled because of their land value, were

natural resources as uranium can be found, and also know that those airplanes

that throw bombs can´t be owned by any. With fear and uncertainty they

walked for weeks in hostile areas among rivers and jungle. On their way they

found entire villages, destroyed by the bombardment. Without knowing what

happened with the rest of the family, Paulina, and "El Turco" arrived to a shelter

for peasants, were they lived heaped with other displaced people for over one

year. They couldn’t leave because armed groups were out waiting for them. In

spite of international intervention, one day they announced that they would have

to leave from there, because the threat of a new assault was imminent. Without

anything and no money, they started again their viacrusis by different cities in

search of a place where to live, until finally they arrived to Aguablanca in Cali.

Paulina, aged 69, is a fertile woman that has given to birth 26 children and

brought to life another hundred of them as midwife. She’s "Mama Chocó",

symbol of nature, the river, the woods....... and of Colombia. She lives at a hotel

in Cali that when it rains gets bogged, and when sun shines the heat isunbearable, which has generated that Paulina’s health is deteriorating day by

day. Far away from where she belongs to tries to keep the bondage with Chocó

through memory and her songs. With a cigarette in his mouth, the one she

learned to smoke backwards when she washed evokes the happiest moments

in his land. On her new neighborhood streets and at the edge of a

contaminated pipe, Paulina imaginarily rebuilds his town and the Atrato River

“the mother of all small rivers”.




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She writes song’s lyrics, most of them express the love she has for what she left

and also the anger produced by inequality and injustice. She loves to sit on her

rocking chair in front of her house and tell to all the neighborhood children

stories and legends from Chocó, where the devil becomes an animal and

"Madre agua" is a mythic being that spell´s on men . They are stories that they

would only know through their grandmother, because hardly they would be able

to go to this magic place.

Paulina heard that in his farm is now living a military officer. While she talks to

us about this situation, she questions how life could be so unfair, how is it

possible that this man is eating their crops, their animals, sleeping on her bed

while they are "eating ashes" with not even a single bed to rest on, or a selling.

She complains of the abandon of the government towards displaced people,

opposed to the working , education and house benefits they are offering to

demobilized paramilitaries and guerillas, while them , their victims, expelledfrom their land by this groups are waiting for a small grant from the

government to buy a house. Every week Paulina meets with other displaced

women in a theater to exorcise their fears, the pain and the suffering through

music and dance and state testimony of their story. She´s a natural born actress

and one day she was chosen to co-star the film "Perro come Perro" in the role

of Iris, a malevolent witch. Her image and voice have been seen in the United

States, Mexico, Colombia, Brazil and Europe. ¿Would this change her story?

¿Would this improve her life? ¿Would the fame help that she finally could have

a house with floor and walls of brick? But like Cinderella’s story, Paulina is too,once the film release gets to it’s end, she has to get back to reality, back to her

hovel struggling day by day selling cigarettes and candies to survive. Beside

Paulina we always see "El Turco", her companion for over more of 35 years,

who won a lifetime of love with Paulina with a spell he put in the rum to Paulina.

Together they danced, laughed, worked and raised their children and

grandsons that reach to 70. According to Paulina "they are the biggest family in

Colombia" and now they are all spread out around Colombia fighting against

fear, war and abandon. This story is the symbol of what almost three million

displaced people in Colombia are living. They feel lost in the cities, were they

can’t work and are discriminated. Their reason of life is to have a house again.

Paulina with her songs evokes her town and takes us in an imaginary journey to

a rich and at the sometime desolated by war region, were we hear the voice of

those who stayed. It’s the chronicle of the pain, the suffering and the struggle

for having a worthy life in something that can be called "home".




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Treatment Elements

Narrative Structure

The narrative axis of this chronicle is the meaning of house in Paulina and her

family’s life. In this part of the documentary Jaime intervenes, Paulina´s

neighbor who paints pictures of dislocated people who live in Cali, he

reproduces them in oil paint, but painting about them the places where they

come from, getting inspiration from the photos these people give him

themselves. Paulina has asked him to make a picture of her with the house she

left in Chocó of which she has no photograph and this creative process will be

shown all along the movie. It is a symbol of Paulina´s evocation and search and

will also serve us as a visual axis.

This is the starting point of an imaginary trip our protagonist will make from Cali

to her hometown Chocó…we will go there and meanwhile Paulina tells us her

story, as she remembers her town, its rivers, forest and people; with our camera

we look though those places where she will not be able to return and we come

across other characters that complement the story, creating an account of

farmers, afros and Indians who fight clenched to their land and of others who,

not finding another way, fled.

Narrative Device

The element that will serve as a trigger and that will push this chronicle ahead is

the nightmare since the day of the displacement and the meaning of having a

house for Paulina and her family. It is the story of her constant search, from the

moment of their exile, going through different conditions, of the promise of

having it either from the part of the State, or of friends or the press that

generates expectation in the lives of our protagonists; up to the disappointment

of never reaching the goal. One of the turning points is when Paulina is granted

a housing benefit and Paulina chooses the house she is to buy. Light is once

more shed onto Paulina and el Turco who had been left with less and less

hope. This generates a sense of suspense that drives us to answer the

question; ¿Will Paulina finally have a house? “Never like the one in Chocó”.

That is clear.




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Musical Documentary

Our starting point and first creative proposal in this documentary is bred from

the musical richness of our characters, where we reached Paulina thanks to her

songs, that she composes, and at the same time she took us to a world where

her daughters, granddaughters, neighbors say it all through song. Music is a

fundamental part in the characters´ day to day life, as in this films narrative.

With it words are sometimes unnecessary, it is their way of expressing their

deepest feelings; joy, pain, mourning, friendship, love….

It is so that one day while I was watching her having lunch, she looks at me and

starts singing or how she seduced the filming team with which she worked or

when her colleague, Blas Jaramillo had to leave and she sings her gratefulness

and goodbye. This is as natural in their lives as is sleeping or eating. Thus, I

reach the conclusion that this will be reflected in this audiovisual proposal thatwould make MAMA CHOCO a “musical documentary”. In the middle of the

story some brief interruptions occur to give way for a fragment of singing, as in

the classic “Singing in the Rain”, result of passing the spirit of Broadway to the

screen. Here we use the music in the life of the characters to tell their own

stories, the same way their ancestors have. Parting from this concept, the

musical and sound designs become fundamental things in our movie, on one

hand, and oral lore as a root element.

Music and Audio Design:

Duality set by the documentary between the past in Chocó and the present in

Cali will be one of the starting points for our sound design. On one hand there

will be transitions between the two environments through sounds capes

recorded in Chocó which contrast with he urban sounds of the reality of the

present. On the other hand we will refer to traditional sounds of marimba and

other percussion but through samplers that allow a more contemporary

treatment to it.

The music will have an impressionistic nature since, instead of describing; it will

seek particular atmospheres thanks to sound textures achieved from popular

instruments. The oral tradition of the Pacific is reflected in the original songs

that the protagonist is used to composing to tell the episodes of her life. The

recording of her voice becomes valuable material to clear up and articulate

sound, music and story.




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Oral Tradition

This leads us to another important issue of our proposal as is the way orality is

handled in the documentary. Africa’s Diasporas have played a leading role in

Colombian literature. Since the arrival of Africans to Cartagena, the sacred and

profane word of the enslaved dialogued with Indian and European tongues. This

fateful encounter molded creative universes where there is a poetic deployment

of the word, be it written, said, sung or recited. In Afro-Colombian literature and

oral tradition we can see Africa’s memories recreated on American ground.

Among them is the deep love for words, according to anthropologist Nina

Friedmann. We will use this resource to obtain information about her life.

Paulina will chat with her husband, El Turco, with her grandchildren, her own

children, and friends to reconstruct the story of her life.

Textures and Shots

We will shoot some sequences using two cameras, trying to get a more

cinematographic effect, especially during conversations, where shot reverse

and the shot scale lead us away from a merely journalistic aesthetic. In regard

to textures, each place where the story takes place will have a special

treatment. Chocó will be warm, lively and evocative, long shots that allow us to

appreciate the grandeur and beauty of the landscape. On the other hand,

Aguablanca will be colder, yet contrasting with close ups capturing gestures and

characters´ emotions becoming much more intimate. It will also depend on thefeeling we may want to transmit. The represented sequences, as when

simulating Paulina´s dream in Chocó, will have a subtle change in color that will

differentiate it from reality. These textures will permit us to separate times and

spaces.

Production

Due to the film’s aesthetic and narrative approach, production is the key issue

to achieve a fluent account. Only here will there be a coherent construction

where different places and times shall blend; parallelism and juxtaposition

advancing towards the same end. Textures and sounds will play a vital role in

the aesthetic and narrative of the program.




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Motivation

“Once we arrived to Chocó, we found an incredible beauty

and natural wealth. At the same time a reality

full of violence and abandonment. So we stayed capturing pieces of life of this region. That´s how Mama Chocó

was born, a documentary project that shows the imaginary

Journey of a Chocó woman displaced in Cali…...from the

streets

of aguablanca´s district, with her singing and stories evokes

Bojaya and the Middle Atrato, a desolated and abandoned

region because of war”.

Chocó is a zone of the Pacific Colombian Region, were the biggest ethnical and

natural wealth and resources of the country converge but also the biggest

population poverty index. With a 46.530km extension is one of the most rainy

regions in the world, contains great biological wealth (subsoil, minerals and

water) represents a privileged geostrategic position: fluvial way made up of

three rivers that communicate the inside of the country with the pacific ocean,

the Atlantic ocean and panama.

Is the zone that provides to the country the 69% of sea fishing, the 70 % of

feedstock for the octopus industry, the 42 % of wood, the 8.1% of platinum, the

18% of gold and the 13.8%of silver. It zone has homes deposits of bauxite,

manganese, radioactive cobalt, tin, nickel, chromium and key minerals for the

ironworks and aerospace industry and for nuclear energy production. However,

its population has the highest mortality, fecundity, human poverty index,

unsatisfied basic needs, and lowest hope of life at birth, the lowest gender

development index and the lowest index of human development.

Chocó suffers the confrontation between armed groups because of the geo-

strategic position value of the territory (halls for arms and drug dealingcommerce from the inside of the country to the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic and

Panama). An interoceanic bridge construction project, the implementation of

large-scale projects, researches and investigations for management and control

of biological and genetic diversity, monoculture among other elements, has

generated more violence and the displacement of its population.




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This has been reflected in the forced recruitment of illegal armed groups, the

raise of selective murders, the abandon and forced confinement of native, black

and peasants towns, while the government plays an inert roll, where Chocó

doesn’t counts with social, economic and education plans benefits, only making

presence through the army........." it’s not fair, that from this country progress,

bullets are the only thing that has arrived to us."

Genesis Operation

Between the 24 and 26 of February of 1997, the counterinsurgency operation

"Genesis" was performed, with general Rito Alejo del Rio at head, in which the

Colombian army in collaboration of paramilitary groups, occupied and bombed

the basin of Salaqui and Cacarica rivers in the low chocoan Atrato region. In

this military operation, the murder of Marino Lopez took place, followed by the

forced displacement of more of 8000 natives, peasants, and afro-descendents,facts that were put in knowledge of the Inter-American commission of Human

Rights.

As a part of the commemorative acts of "Genesis" operation, the Permanent

Peoples Tribunal, realized a hearing about biodiversity and Crimes against

humanity in the humanitarian zone of Nueva Esperanza de Dios in the basin of

Cacarica river, during the days 25 and 26 of February of 2007. This session

gave continuity to the analysis of the multinational industries in Colombia

problem, in their activity of extraction of natural resources with the help of theColombian public force and paramilitary groups.

In 2009 the number of displaced people because of the armed conflict is up to

three million people.




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Script

Mama Chocó could be defined as a documentary in which observation,

representation and music are mixed with some traces of poetry that refer us to

the chronicle of Paulina´s life and journey. It will be the result of a series of narrative elements that allow us to tell this story with a juxtaposed approach of

time and space.

It is a story whose starting point will be Paulina´s here and now. Paulina, who

through conversations with her grandchildren, husband, family and friends and

her evocation songs will take us to her past, in which we can see the Chocó

where Paulina lived her childhood and youth happily; the arrival of the armed

forces and her escape from her land, up to her present day life in “el Distrito de

Aguablanca” in Cali where she now faces fear and fights to get ahead and havea house to live in while being able to keep her culture alive, in a violent world

where they are out of place and obligated to abandon their origins to be able to

survive.

Paulina and her family will find a view of their own history; they will take it,

holding on to their pride for their origin and the philosophy of life inherited by

their African ancestors that are reflected in their day to day life in their musical

tradition and social rites.

Direct Film

Film techniques will be used to get close to reality in certain conditions:

understanding, interchange and living along with our character and her

environment for a long time. This allows us to construct the story from an

omniscient viewpoint from the author, where our presence is almost invisible.

Films, the art of the instant and the instantaneous are the art of patience and art

of time. There are some provoked situations with the objective of generating

remembrance from the part of our protagonist that will send us to the land sheleft behind and the home she lost.

Our main reference point is Ralph Rouch and particularly his movie Moi, Un

Noir . Of the 530 ways to film and set up a character that merely walks down the

street, Rouch chooses the best way. Each shot is good, but what makes this set

up something special is the balance between trajectories, angles and speeds

among the different shots and solutions that Rouch adopts for the film.




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Representation

In the creative development of this documentary we will scratch around the

controversy of fashion, reality and fiction. This documentary will have provoked

sequences and others designed to generate metaphors in the story that blend

among the real moments.

This approach is opposed to direct films and its combination is what will

definitely make this documentary have an original proposal. In representation

Abbas Kiasrostami is our teacher with his movie Close Up, in which a relation

between documentary and fiction is established and proves that one feeds itself

from the other.

Furthermore, his ability in the management of the view that does not hold a new

problematic of representation but rather refers to its ontological background.There is not a view upon representation nor a representative view but

something simpler: movement of the view. Or what is the same: to open the

eyes” (Jan Luc Nancy).

On the other hand, through representation we also seek to provoke the

characters, for instance, taking Paulina to her house in Chocó. In this sense, the

filmmaker whom I consider does it with great ability is Rithy Panh in his movie

The Death Machine.

The movie confronts a dozen ancient red jemers – prison guards, in charge of

questioning, a doctor and a photographer, among others – with two of their

victims. Torturers and victims evoke this extermination machine, red jemer; the

first listen among a guilty silence the demand for explanations from the second.

The executioners are taken to the places where they tortured their victims.

Leitmotivs

1. Don Jaime’s creative process. Starting at the feeling of the dream of an

ideal home, a character appears in the documentary that materializes it.

It is Jaime; one of Paulina´s neighbors who makes oil paintings of

displaced people from the Pacific in their original places. He does this

getting inspiration from the photographs given to him by his clients.

Paulina has asked him to make a picture of El Turco and her with the

house they left behind in Chocó and of which she does not have a

photograph. This is the starting point of an imaginary trip that our




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protagonist will make to her hometown, Chocó…

2. Afro-Colombian Memory. What has happened in these last years in this

region. This will be developed in a television program created by us and

that Paulina and her family and neighbors will watch every week, which

will serve as a trigger for them to tell us about what they think and

remembrance of what they left behind. We will go to Chocó with our

cameras and while Paulina tells us her story, as she recalls her town, its

rivers, forests and people, we go through the places where she cannot

return. On the way we come across people that repeat the story that

Paulina already lived. It is like going over her steps. Reflection will be

generated not only about the violence lived by this region, but also about

the beauty of nature and the legends, customs and rites that are

practiced here. At the end we will go with Paulina to Rio Sucio, where her

house is and of which she has some vague news referred by family andfriends who did returned to the town.

Parallel Stories

Subplots will be juxtaposed all along the documentary, which will allow us to tell

the main story in a rhythmic manner, while other topics are developed parallel

to it, having characters in other spaces.

Love story with El Turco: behind every great woman there is a great man, and

this is Manuel’s case, El Turco, who Paulina had 18 of her 26 children and whowon her over putting a spell into her drink and who, from the moment she said

yes, has become her guarding angel who cares for her, adores and supports

her in all her projects.

Her life as an artist: her success in the movie Perro come Perro [Dog eats Dog]

(Director: Carlos Moreno), her rehearsals in La Mascara and her participation in

different castings to get a job as actress and/or singer.

State benefits and aids to have a house and eat: We will see along with Paulina

and her daughters the different stages of the process that displaced people

must go through to be able to get a house with the help of the State and/or

NGOs




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The exodus of the people of Chocó: Parting from Paulina´s story, we collect

testimonies and images that reveal some of the situations people live in Chocó

that cause its inhabitants to be move out to other places, especially cities like

Cali and Medellín.

Characters´ Profiles

Paulina Rivas was born 69 years ago in Bojayá, Chocó, and mother of 26

children from two different fathers. She used to live in Bajo Atrato with her

husband Manuel. There they made a living with a grocery store. She had a big

house with crops and cattle. She lost her mother and some of her children and

relatives in the Bojayá genocide. A year later she was pushed away by

bombarding and from that moment on she has been a displaced person. She

does not know how to read but has a prodigious memory. She sings, dances

and acts. She has been living in Cali since 2000 with her husband, somechildren and grandchildren in a house made of plastic and wood with a small

vegetable garden where she remembers the crops she used to care for in her

land.

Two years ago the producers of a feature film saw her acting with other

displaced women in a theater called La Mascara in Cali and that way she

became an actress in the movie Perro come Perro where she played the role of

a witch from Chocó and, although she could eat well for several months, her life

continued the same. Her struggle is the search for a house.Some months ago the State gave her a housing benefit that will only become

effective if she can obtain four million pesos more - an amount she might never

be able to collect. Now the movie has won awards abroad and she holds on to

the hope that this will give her the chance to finally have a good job and, so, the

money she needs to have her house.

Manuel “El Turco”, same age as Paulina, born in the capital of Chocó, Quibdó.

He used to be a policeman. One day he saw a beautiful woman who was

cooking in Bojayá and fell in love, it was Paulina. From that day on he became

her other half, her prince charming. Because of his condition as a state worker

in the police department he had to face difficult situations with the illegal armed

forces, to the point where his life was threatened by paramilitaries who

considered him an untrustworthy and dangerous person.




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He has remained by Paulina´s side all along the way as displaced people; he

has supported and protected her. His eyes are nostalgic and yearn for the land

he is sure those eyes will never see again.

Jaime is a self-taught painter who comes from Buenaventura. He has lives for

more than 15 years in El Distrito and he has his own house which he built

himself. He likes painting displaced people in their original environment as an

act of evocation. When he met Paulina he was amazed by Paulina´s courage

and for the misery she lives in and he wants to know what her house in Chocó

was like.

Besides these characters, Paulina´s children, grandchildren, friends and

neighbors, displaced as well, who back each other up and give each other

strength to be recognized by the rest of the population in the city and especially

to stop being invisible for the State.

Locations

Distrito de Aguablanca – Cali

There is a seemingly endless row of houses made of wood, cardboard,

bamboo, some houses in ruins and others made of brick and concrete that

leave columns in sight as a promise of a second or third floor. More than half amillion Afro-Colombians live here together with big numbers of people coming

from the south and the interior of the country. Most of them displaced people

who have fled from misery and war during the last 20 years or more. Floods are

very common due to the closeness of rivers, malaria and influenza are

abundant. Unemployment comes to 70% in some places. Some work taking

sand out of the bottom of the rivers and rubble while cultures, legends and

voices meet reveling origins that resist being lost. El Distrito de Aguablanca is

for some of the people in Cali a dangerous place whose limits they rarely cross.




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Departamento del Chocó

As was mentioned earlier, Chocó is located in the Colombian Pacific region,

between the jungles of Darien and the basins of the rivers Atrato and San Juan.

Thanks to its closeness to the mountainous region of Baudó, the jungle

escorted by its population, plus its climate with constant rain allow the

development of a great biodiversity. It is a region with awesome, exuberant

landscapes. It is the only department in Colombia that has coasts on both

oceans and borders Panamá. It is strategically located. When arriving in

Quibdó, the capital of Chocó, reality turns shadowy. The view over the Atrato

river, the houses with zinc roof tiles (tin roof covers), made of wood and in very

few cases of concrete; you can see the joyfulness of the people but you can

also see their poverty; the lack of water and sewer system in their territory, lack

of food in the houses of the displaced from other parts of Chocó.

In the interior of Chocó deforestation is undeniable. The territories are nearly

uninhabited. Chocoans tell us they have always been denied, since their

enslavement until now, when big companies exploit their territories or plan big

projects for “development”, which so far has only brought war. Accustomed to

making a living in the mines, fishing, low-key agriculture and hunting, they now

find that their land no longer belongs to them or that the animals that provided

their protein are being swept away, extinguished.

Step Outline

Evocation: Paulina remembers her house in Chocó, what nature was like, the

good quality of her life while we watch her talk from the inside of her house in

Aguablanca in Cali. A house made of plastic and wood, soil floor, lacking water

and getting her electricity clandestinely. While she keeps recalling her past we

see how she lives piled up with her husband and several grandchildren. Paulina

gets out of her house and tells the kids from the neighborhood about her land,

takes them up to a ditch with dirty water flowing down and there evokes the

Atrato river, the things she did there. She talks about the future and her hopes

and dreams… about how life is in nature and she can’t go back to it.




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Chocó: From the air we can see a lush jungle, surrounded by rivers and seas.

As if in a road movie we will record the trip through the region by boat what will

allow us to see the great importance of the rivers in Chocó, they function like

city streets. Commerce, culture and social life develop in them. Along the way

we can see the small colored wood houses on the Shore of Atrato River.

Further on we find kids swimming and women washing clothes in Ichó River.

There is such exuberance.

Operation Genesis: Paulina and El Turco relive that morning in February when

they had to run out, almost naked at 5 am, because they were surrounded and

being bombarded. As a flashback, we will see archive images showing the

attack and farmers´ escape from the bombs that left craters of 32 feet in

diameter. They all ended up as refugees in improvised shelters for the

displaced from where they could not go out because the armed groups were

waiting there to murder them. It looks pretty much as in a concentration camp.

The Nightmare: with the aid of a map we will follow Paulina and El Turco´s trip

with some of their children and grandchildren since the moment they were

displaced. They went by cities that did not receive them, towns where they were

led away by gunfire from battles between paramilitaries and the guerrilla, other

places where they were shooed away with tear gas by the police until finally

they arrive to Cali without a single coin to their name and with the feeling that

they were worth little for the rest of Colombians.

I need a house: Paulina and El Turco live in a worn down hut in very

precarious conditions which have made her ill. That’s why they have had to look

for a solution to get out of there. That’s how they get involved with Colombian

bureaucracy, being sent from here to there to be able to have a housing benefit.

This produces conflict between the people from the country and the people from

the city, the monster that devours them. They struggle to complete the money

they need to have a decent house to live in. As the story goes we will know if

they achieve it or not.

The Love Story: Paulina an El Turco met more than 35 years ago when

Paulina was already the widow of a man whose own grandmother had cast a

spell upon. It was love at first sight, but Paulina played hard to get until one day

El Turco convinces her of having a couple of rums with him. After that day

Paulina could not stop thinking about him and they are still together to this day,

with 12 children from their marriage and 7 from her previous marriage plus 6

she lost, in good times and in bad times.




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Neighborhood life: El Distrito de Aguablanca is a small city within the city. On

its streets we see the great variety of cultures that fuse together there since it is

a neighborhood of immigrants and displaced people. So, on each corner we see

afros singing, women knitting, kids dancing hip-hop, each one trying to bring in

a piece of their land. Don Jaime also lives here, a painter who makes oil

paintings of his neighbors in the places where they originally belong based on

photos. One day he receives Paulina´s order of an oil painting of her house in

Chocó.

Fame without Money: In her fight for survival Paulina took hand of the best

she knows how to do; sing. She begins working with a theater company that

works with displaced people and is discovered in one of the rehearsals by an

important producer who hires her to be the protagonist of a feature film. Paulina

sees the light at the end of the road at a moment where life is hard for her. We

see Paulina like Cinderella in the middle of the glamour of film making. Sheplays Iris, a witch from Chocó who serves as advisor for a mobster from Cali.

Colombia’s biggest family: Among children, some relatives, others not,

Paulina tries to remember the names of her 26 children of which most start with

an O. This makes her one of Colombia’s most fertile women, and of course of

her land. Not to mention all the kids she helped come to this world as a midwife.

Mama Chocó.

$4 million to go: In her hut Paulina tells us she has not been able to collect the4 million pesos she needs to make the housing benefit effective and buy her

house. She hopes fame earned from the movie will be useful to get more work

and thus the money to live. She looks sick. This is when the question arises,

What does a farmer, whose land have been ripped away, do in the city

expecting to recover an honorable life and that someone will treat them with

justice, as they do with the guerilla and paramilitary members who in the

moment of having recourse to the government’s amnesty receive a guarantee

for housing, food and education while their victims still await to be heard?




17

PRODUCTION PLAN

Etapa Duration Action DescripciónPreproduction 40 days Acquiring all the permitions,

making all the legal contracts,finishing the script. Realization

of a shooting plan.

Production (shooting) 40 days Shooting in Cali (30 days) and

Chocó (10 days)

POSTPRODUCTION 70 days Watching all material, making

an edition script, go to edition,

sound design, and original

music composer.

In ProcessFinalization 30 days Copies, subtitles, colour

correction, sound

In ProcessTotal 180 days




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BUDGET MAMA CHOCÓ 75 MIN

100 PRODUCTION STAFFÍtem Euros

101 Script-Direction 4.000 €

101 Producer 2.000 €

102 Cinematographer 3.500 €

103 Soundman 2.600 €

SUBTOTAL 12.100 € 200 PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT Euros

201

Camera and accessories. Panasonic

p2 8.200 €

202 Sound 2.800 €

203 Lighting Kit 2.800 €

SUBTOTAL 13.800 € 300 RAW STOCK Euros

301 MiniDv tapes 250 €

302 Memory Cards 3.000 €

303 Betacam Tapes 250 €

304 DVD 50 €

SUBTOTAL 3.550 € 400 PRODUCTION Euros

401 Land transportation (Cali production) 1.800 €

402 Catering (Cali production) 1.500 €

403 Land transportation (Chocó) 750 €

404 Air transportation (Chocó) 1200 €

405 Fluvial transportation (Chocó) 500 €

406 Acomodation (Chocó) 1200 €

407 Catering 2000 €

409 Equipment insurance 800 €

SUBTOTAL 6.450 €




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500 POSTPRODUCTION Euros

501 No linear Edition 4.000 €

502 Editor 3.500 €

503 Original Music Composer 2.500 €

504 Graphic Design 1.000 €

505 Copies 1.500 €

506 Recording studio 1.500 €

507 Retouch and graphicness 2.500 €

SUBTOTAL 16.500 € 500A Stock500A-

1 Photos and Images 2.500 €

500B Translation and Subtitles500B-

1Translation

1.000 €

500B-

2Subtitles

1.500 €

SUBTOTAL 4.500 € 600 ACCOUNTING/LEGAL/INSURANCE Euros

601 Administration 2.500 €

602 Taxes 6.500 €

603 Other (Contingency) 3.000 €

SUBTOTAL 12.300 € TOTAL GENERAL 69.200 €

FINANCIAL PLAN IN EUROS

PREPRODUCTION AND PRODUCTION POSTPRODUCTIONMinisterio de

Cultura

Altercine Making Docs Fourmedia

Group

Jan Vrijman

Fund12.100 3.550 32.550 4.500 16.500

21% 7% 40% 12% 20%

Script-Direction,

Producer,

Cinematographer,

Soundman.

Raw

Stock

Equipment,

Production,

Production,

Accounting/legal/insur

ance

Stock,

Translation

and Subtitles,

Editor.

Postproducción

TOTAL 69.200




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Support Documents

CV FILMMAKERS

DIANA PATRICIA CUELLAR ESPAÑ[email protected]

STUDIES2001 Master in Documentary Creation. IDEV. UPF. Barcelona, Spain

1993. Social Communication. Journalist. Univesidad del Valle. Cali,

Colombia

FILM AND DOCUMENTARY2008 Jury in Gramado Film Festival Brazil.

2006 First Direction Assistant Feature film PERRO COME PERRO. Antorcha

films- Patofeo Films, COLOMBIA

2006/04 Production Assistant Mallerich Films Paco Poch FEATURE FILMS:

Dans rouche du couchant (Edgardo Cozarinsky), Cravan vs. Cravan (IsakiLacuesta), Tempus Fugit (Enrich Folch)

FEATURE FILMS AND DOCUMENTARY

2006 First Direction Assistant Film PERRO COME PERRO

Antorcha Films - Patofeo Films –

Colombia

2003/ 04 Production Assistant – Mallerich Films Paco Poch.




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FILMS : Dans rouche du couchant (Edgardo Cozarinsky)

TVMOVIES: Tempus Fugit, Boris (Enric Folch).

DOCUMENTARIES: La Leyenda del tiempo (Isaki Lacuesta), F for Fontcuberta

(Citrullo Films), Miró (Yves de Peretti)

Barcelona - Spain

2004 Production Assistant Shortfilm “El cos”

Isaki Lacuesta – Forum de las Culturas

Barcelona – Spain

2001 Production Assistant Film “Cravan vs. Cravan”

Mallerich Films – Benece Films

Barcelona – Spain

TEACH2009. Audiovisual Comunication. Universidad del Valle.

Filmography

DOCUMENTARY “Marímbula”

About Palenque de San Basilio’s children and the recovering of their ancestral

memory.

Making Docs - Spain

DOCUMENTARY “Fotofilm case”

About cinema as humanity’s patrimony.

Thinkwll Europa – TV3 –

Barcelona - Spain

2007 DOCUMENTARY “Weavers of peace” 25´

Amnisty International – Europe / Making Docs / Punt Doc

Colombia

2005 DOCUMENTARY “Love out of reach”. 52’.

Festivals: Latinoamericano Films, Toulouse, 100% Colombia (Paris), Bogocine,

Itineraries (Bruselas) and Live Colombia (Barcelona)

MAKING DOCS

Spain/Colombia

2002 DOCUMENTARY “ISAKI VS. CRAVAN”. 20’




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Festivals: Sitges and “Docúpolis” de Barcelona

Mallerich Audiovisual – Benecé – UPF - Barcelona

2002 Co-author DOCUMENTARY “Jewish Gypsy”. 52’

Festivals: Rotterdam, Film Jewish of Barcelona, Docúpolis, Festival Latin Films

of San

Francisco

Moshe Pesach. AUREA DOCUMENTARY – Barcelona

2001 Co-author DOCUMENTARY “Zalman”.

Festivals: “Docúpolis”, Barcelona, Film Festival of Canarias “Mediafest”, Film

Jewish of

Barcelona

Moshe Pesach. Producción independiente. - Barcelona

1993/94 DOCUMENTARIES“Evoking from tropic” and “Life’s footbridge”. 30’

Rostros y Rastros de UVTV - Cali

MAKING DOCSProducing Company

www.makingdocs.blogspot.com

MAKING DOCS is a documentary film producer created by Colombian

documentary makers whose goal is to create, spread and promote audiovisual

documentary projects, while seeking the development of new filmmakers

through teaching. It is an innovative, avant-garde, daring and effective company

that produces different proposals and has the potential to sketch out a new

horizon in Colombian documentary film towards the world.

The documentaries made by MAKING DOCS have focused in different topics

approaching areas such as sociology, anthropology and history of a culture; it

explores the origins, their social, economic and political problematic; it

denounces and protects certain rights. These works speak of communities,

people and, above all, their memory.

Diana Kuellar, Andrés Giraldo and Mauricio Gómez are the creators of MAKING

DOCS which came to life in 2004 in Barcelona, Spain and since 2007 in Cali,

Colombia. They are producers of their own projects while taking upon the




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directive roles in the company. Diana Kuellar, president and founder, works in

direction and production, Andrés Giraldo, Director of Photography, Mauricio

González, direction and production, Olga Gutiérrez, producer and Carolina

Carvajal, project development.

Meeting its objectives MAKING DOCS has an elevated social commitment,

using documentary as a way to divulger and sensibilize. At present, it has an

amply trajectory in the creation of documentary works that are in different

stages.

BACKGROUND

2009. MAMA CHOCO (Feature Length Documentary) in pre-production stage.

Direction: Diana Kuellar. Awards: Ministry of Culture 2008. Altércine 2009

2009 MARIMBULA (Feature Length Documentary) is being developed.

Direction: Diana Kuellar. Congo Film Award 2007.

2008 COCA IS NOT TO BLAME (Documentary 52’). Direction: Mauricio

González.

2007 PEACE WEAVERS (Documentary 24’) Direction: Diana Kuellar - Joana

Galindo. With the support of Amnesty international Holland.

2006 IF THERE IS NO WIND, DON’T GO UP (documentary 24”). Director:

Mauricio González. Best Corot “Actua” Cafam, ANSA- Amnesty international.

2003 GYPSY JEW (Documentary 52’). Direction: Moshe Pesach. Script and

production: Diana Cuellar. Rotterdam Festival, Jewish Film Festival Barcelona,

Docupolis, Latin Movie Festival San Francisco. TVE. AUREA DOCUMENTARY

– Barcelona.

2002. ISAKI Vs CRAVAN (documentary 24’) Direction and script: Diana

Kuellar. Sitges and Docúpolis Festivals. Mallerich Films. Benecé. Barcelona.

2006 IF THERE IS NO WIND, DON´T GO UP (documentary 24’). Best Corot

“Actua” Cafam, ANSA- Amnesty international.




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2008-2009 INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATE IN DOCUMENTARY CREATION.

Cali, Colombia. Director: Diana Kuellar. With the support of Universidad del

Valle.

Certificate from the Ministry of Culture of Colombia -Scholarship programs for creating television unit in the genres

of chronic and reporting




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Certificate of co-production withFOURMEDIA GROUP




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