yarokamena

by Andrés Jurado
Documentary, 2022, 21‘

This is the story of a Uitoto indigenous person who organized armed resistance to rubber exploitation at the beginning of the 20th century in Casa Arana. Yarokamena, invokes the spiritual and cosmic forces of war, releasing its destructive power from its container that ends up creating a spiral of betrayal and death. This remarkable tale was banned by traditional authorities for its potential to attract young people to revolt and function as a stimulus to resort to witchcraft.

This story is told by Gerardo Sueche, councilor of the Uitoto peoples, going through filmic portraits of a delirious Amazon, invaded by technological ruins, dysfunctional antennas, ghost ships, and colonial ghosts housed in the oral memory of the survivors of this episode of exploitation and extractivism; using cinema as a new container for this destructive force.

  • Written and directed by Andrés Jurado Uribe
  • Narrated by Gerardo Sueche Cañube
  • Cinematography: Andrés Jurado
  • Editing: Andrés Jurado
  • Music References: Jitoma Safiama
  • Sound: Maria Rojas Arias and Andrés Jurado
  • Sound design: Julian Galay
  • Sound mixing: Hernán Higa
  • Color Grading: Gonçalo Ferreira
  • Production: La Vulcanizadora + Maria Rojas Arias and Andrés Jurado
  • Co-production: Kintop
  • [2022] Berlin International Film Festival. Forum Expanded. Berlin, Germany. (international Premiere, Forum Expanded)
  • [2022] EMAF- European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück, Germany. 
  • [2022] Cinemancia. Festival Metropolitano de Cine. Medellín. Colombia.
  • [2022] BIEFF. Bucarest International Experimental Film Festival. Romania.
  • [2022] MIDBO Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá. Colombia.
  • [2022] DocLisboa. Portugal.
  • [2022] Berlin International Film Festival. Forum Expanded. Berlin, Germany. (international Premiere, Forum Expanded)
  • [2022] EMAF- European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück, Germany.
  • [2022] BIEFF. Bucarest International Experimental Film Festival. Romania.
  • [2022] MIDBO Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá. Colombia.
  • [2022] DocLisboa. Portugal.
  • [2022]. 35 EMAF. European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück. (Alemania)
  • [2022]. Bogoshorts. Festival Internacional de Cortos de Bogotá (Colombia)
  • [2023]. Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival (Grecia)
  • [2023]. International Documentary Film Festival Vienna 17th Ethnocineca (Austria)
  • [2023] Clube de Cinema Caminhos. Coimbra (Portugal)
  • [2023] Mostra de Primeiras Curtas #10. Porto (Portugal)
  • [2022]. Doclisboa Honourable Mention in the Practice, Tradition and Heritage Award (Portugal)”

Andrés Jurado is an artist, filmmaker, researcher and producer whose work explores the intersections between experimental and expanded cinema, archives, counter archive, contemporary art, propaganda, mosquitoes, aliens, the space race, and the incidences of those in the construction of contemporary narratives and politics. His works have been presented at Docs Buenos Aires, MIDBO Bogotá International Documentary Festival, and EMAF, among others. He is co-founder and co-director of the Laboratory of Experimental Cinema and Expanded Theater La Vulcanizadora. His film El Renacer del Carare received a Special Mention of the Flash Competition in the 31st FIDMarseille 2020 and the Public Prize of the Panorama de Cinema Colombiano in Paris in 2021. He was part of the Forensic Architecture Team in the investigation into land dispossession, disappearance, and deforestation in Colombia. His last short Yarokamena premiered in 72 Berlinale Forum Expanded.

Synopsis

This is the story of a Uitoto indigenous person who organized armed resistance to rubber exploitation at the beginning of the 20th century in Casa Arana. Yarokamena, invokes the spiritual and cosmic forces of war, releasing its destructive power from its container that ends up creating a spiral of betrayal and death. This remarkable tale was banned by traditional authorities for its potential to attract young people to revolt and function as a stimulus to resort to witchcraft.

This story is told by Gerardo Sueche, councilor of the Uitoto peoples, going through filmic portraits of a delirious Amazon, invaded by technological ruins, dysfunctional antennas, ghost ships, and colonial ghosts housed in the oral memory of the survivors of this episode of exploitation and extractivism; using cinema as a new container for this destructive force.

Credits
  • Written and directed by Andrés Jurado Uribe
  • Narrated by Gerardo Sueche Cañube
  • Cinematography: Andrés Jurado
  • Editing: Andrés Jurado
  • Music References: Jitoma Safiama
  • Sound: Maria Rojas Arias and Andrés Jurado
  • Sound design: Julian Galay
  • Sound mixing: Hernán Higa
  • Color Grading: Gonçalo Ferreira
  • Production: La Vulcanizadora + Maria Rojas Arias and Andrés Jurado
  • Co-production: Kintop
Festivals & Screenings
  • [2022] Berlin International Film Festival. Forum Expanded. Berlin, Germany. (international Premiere, Forum Expanded)
  • [2022] EMAF- European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück, Germany. 
  • [2022] Cinemancia. Festival Metropolitano de Cine. Medellín. Colombia.
  • [2022] BIEFF. Bucarest International Experimental Film Festival. Romania.
  • [2022] MIDBO Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá. Colombia.
  • [2022] DocLisboa. Portugal.
  • [2022] Berlin International Film Festival. Forum Expanded. Berlin, Germany. (international Premiere, Forum Expanded)
  • [2022] EMAF- European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück, Germany.
  • [2022] BIEFF. Bucarest International Experimental Film Festival. Romania.
  • [2022] MIDBO Muestra Internacional Documental de Bogotá. Colombia.
  • [2022] DocLisboa. Portugal.
  • [2022]. 35 EMAF. European Media Art Festival. Osnabrück. (Alemania)
  • [2022]. Bogoshorts. Festival Internacional de Cortos de Bogotá (Colombia)
  • [2023]. Psarokokalo International Short Film Festival (Grecia)
  • [2023]. International Documentary Film Festival Vienna 17th Ethnocineca (Austria)
  • [2023] Clube de Cinema Caminhos. Coimbra (Portugal)
  • [2023] Mostra de Primeiras Curtas #10. Porto (Portugal)
Award
  • [2022]. Doclisboa Honourable Mention in the Practice, Tradition and Heritage Award (Portugal)”
Andrés Jurado

Andrés Jurado is an artist, filmmaker, researcher and producer whose work explores the intersections between experimental and expanded cinema, archives, counter archive, contemporary art, propaganda, mosquitoes, aliens, the space race, and the incidences of those in the construction of contemporary narratives and politics. His works have been presented at Docs Buenos Aires, MIDBO Bogotá International Documentary Festival, and EMAF, among others. He is co-founder and co-director of the Laboratory of Experimental Cinema and Expanded Theater La Vulcanizadora. His film El Renacer del Carare received a Special Mention of the Flash Competition in the 31st FIDMarseille 2020 and the Public Prize of the Panorama de Cinema Colombiano in Paris in 2021. He was part of the Forensic Architecture Team in the investigation into land dispossession, disappearance, and deforestation in Colombia. His last short Yarokamena premiered in 72 Berlinale Forum Expanded.

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