Colombia: Memory work by way of documentary films

How can political violence be reappraised by the medium of film? How can this contribute to a country coming to terms with its past? These were key questions during a workshop of the DW Akademie in Bogotá.

"How do you feel about the current transformation process in Colombia? Which experiences have you made regarding political violence?" It is an emotional start for the twelve workshop attendants in Bogotá. For one week, they will intensively delve into what the decades of violence in Colombia, inflicted by guerillas, paramilitary forces, the drug Mafia and government security forces, have caused and how they can translate these experiences into new visual languages and creative forms of narrative. The objective of the workshop headed by documentary film maker Uli Stelzner is to find new forms of narrative to address viewers, who have become jaded by always the same news formats reporting war and conflicts, in an emotional manner and to get them to think and act.

The attendants who have been chosen from more than 300 applicants have one thing in common: they all devote themselves to the audiovisual documentation of the conflict in Colombia. However, they do this from different points of view. Some are active in social services; others work as journalists or in a design capacity. Each one of them has been affected by the conflict in one form or another, just like all Colombians. They have lost family members, neighbours or colleagues because of the violence. In the workshop, they present their current projects; they compare, analyse and develop things further. Quickly, a group dynamic sets in; the joint reminiscing helps to connect with each other.

"Colombia is a traumatised country", says Matthias Kopp, Country Manager at the DW Akademie. "For a long time, people did not dare to publicly talk about their horrible experiences. This has begun to change since there have been prospects of a peace agreement. The journalists now are faced with the difficult and responsible task of collecting the stories of these traumatised people and to pass them on in a manner suitable to trigger change. An experienced film maker such as Uli Stelzner can provide valuable support in this."

Memory work in images – the format of a documentary film carries particular weight in post-conflict societies. How does one convey the 'image' of the past and identity? For more than twenty years, Uli Stelzner has been living and working in Germany and Guatemala – a country that shares quite a few similarities with Colombia. The civil war there was ended in 1996 by way of a peace agreement. Yet the reappraisal of the conflict and the numerous violations of human rights is progressing only slowly. Stelzner's film "La Isla" (2009) describes how victims of the civil war in Guatemala find out the truth about the death of their missing relatives in files found in a previously secret police archive. This is a topic that is highly virulent also in Colombia, where currently some 90,000 people are regarded as 'missing'.

The group analyses Stelzner's film as well as examples from other countries regarding various aspects such as visual language, dramatic composition, treatment of traumatised protagonists, illustration of history in film, creative use of archive material and staging in documentary films. Does the film approach the topic like an essay? Does it focus on personal reference? In what way are violations of human rights addressed?

With animation, the film makers discuss why hardly any political documentary films are shown on South American television. The daily reporting of conflict and violence in Colombia amounts to nothing more than always the same sensationalistic news formats. In-depth analysis has no place there. The attendants thus feel all the more affected by the auteur films shown during the workshop. "They cause far more emotional response than traditional television reportages," says a workshop participant.

A lot of stimulus and inspiration for their own film work: the colleagues' feedback helps to reflect one's own approach and investigate the visual language options. "This workshop constitutes an exceptional opportunity. We experience the different ways in which Colombia's complex reality can be illustrated in the medium of film", the attendants agree. The result is a network; all offer mutual support regarding research, technology and various stages of production. They hatch the idea to develop a joint project: to produce twelve short films from the project ideas of the twelve participants and to win over television channels and non-governmental organisations for the idea.

The workshop "Creative documentary films in post-war societies" under the supervision of Uli Stelzner took place following the conference "The challenges of journalism in the post-war period" organised by the network Consejo de Redacción (CdR). The DW Akademie has been working together with CdR since 2013. The DW Akademie's projects in Colombia focus on the topics of conflict-sensitive journalism and journalistic reappraisal of conflicts. The DW Akademie's projects in Colombia are funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).