Swiss films about guilt and atonement in Bogotá
The documentary film festival in Bogotá has invited the Swiss film director Juan José Lozano of Columbian descent to present his films.
01.11.2012
The 14th International Documentary Encounters in Bogotá will devote one of its retrospectives this year to the 41-year-old Genevan director of Columbian descent. Juan José Lozano addresses the reasons for and manner of coping with the violence in his homeland in the four documentary films screened at the festival: “Colombie - Le bal de la vie et de la mort” (2001); “Hasta la última piedra” (2006); “Témoin indésirable” (2008); and “Impunity” (2010), made together with the Columbian journalist Hollman Morris. Juan José Lozano, who has lived in Geneva for 15 years, received death threats while shooting his last film “Impunity” and only managed to complete the film under difficult conditions. Following the festival in Bogotá, the retrospective comprising Lozano’s films will also tour the major cities of Bucamaranga, Cali, Medellin, Santa Marta and Cartagena in Columbia, thanks to the support by SWISS FILMS, the promotion agency. Last year the festival screened a retrospective of films by Swiss-Spanish director Fernand Melgar in the Columbian capital, also in collaboration with SWISS FILMS.
International Swiss films
The festival programme in Bogotá includes two further films which bear witness to the internationality of Swiss documentary filmmaking: Genevan director Eileen Hofer’s film “He Was A Giant With Brown Eyes,” which was shot in Azerbaijan, as well as the Swiss-German coproduction “Raising Resistance” by Bettina Borgfeld and David Bernet about the problems associated with genetic engineering in agriculture, using the cultivation of soybeans in Paraguay as an example.
Zurich, November 1, 2012