Resistencia en la línea negra (Resistance inside the black line) is a video that was shown this year at an international indigenous-film festival in Colombia. It tells the story of the indigenous people in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, our older brothers that keep the world from falling apart with their knowledge and rites. We should all listen to them since they can translate back and forth from what we call “nature.”
On our labSurlab mailing list, we have had a series of e-mails related to the “XI Festival internacional de cine y video indígena.” It took place in November in both Medellín and Bogotá. Its existence is worth sharing here because the videos that make up the festival program were produced by many, if not all, of the indigenous communities involved: proof that video is a way to resist and survive the extreme forces of displacement, land and knowledge exploitation, slavery and even civil war. Therefore the festival’s slogan is:
“Por la vida, imágenes de resistencia” (For life, images of resistance)
The festival runs a YouTube channel (Festival Cine y Video) but has used it only for promotional videos about the festival, not for trailers. This seems inconsistent, since we live in times when all of the videos included in the festival’s program should be widely distributed online. After trying to get in touch with the official organizers to see if there could be a way to get some of the videos shown and shared around the Vortex, we got no answer. Anyhow, here is the official website (in Spanish) from the people who put this great festival together: Video Indigena
