Luis Ospina and Carlos Mayolo were among the most influential figures in Colombian cinema. In the 1970's they captured stories of their country and their friends and explored the boundaries between fiction and documentary cinema with a sense of humor, audacity, formal imagination and an enormous empathy for marginal people. We present a program of four of their shorts from the 1970's.
Oiga vea!
Colombia / 28 / 1971 / documentary
in Spanish with English subtitles
Direction: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Screenplay: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Cinematography: Carlos Mayolo
Editing: Luis Ospina
Producers: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Cali de película
Colombia / 14 / 1972 / documentary
in Spanish with English subtitles
Direction: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Screenplay: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Cinematography: Carlos Mayolo
Editing: Luis Ospina
Producers: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Colombia / 15 / 1975 / fiction
in Spanish with English subtitles
Direction: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Screenplay: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Editing: Luis Ospina
Producers: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Cast: Marina Restrepo, Monica Silva, Vicenta Carabali, Genaro de Gamboa, Pablo Martinez
Colombia / 29 / 1977 / fiction
in Spanish with English subtitles
Direction: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Screenplay: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Editing: Luis Ospina
Producers: Luis Ospina, Carlos Mayolo
Cast: Eduardo Carvajal, Carlos Mayolo, Luis Alfonso Londono, Ramiro Arbelaez
Luis Ospina made the short documentary Listen, Look (1971) with his childhood friend Carlos Mayolo. The Pan American Games were being held in the city at that time, yet these young filmmakers did not gain accreditation. Instead of shooting the athletes, they filmed life in the streets around the stadium. The uncensored imagery of poverty, the fruits of the failure of the social system, contrasted sharply with the official, sanitized presentation of the event. With it, Ospina and Mayolo contributed to the cultural and social revival that took place in Cali in the 1970s.
Many Latin American filmmakers have come to realize that the easiest way to achieve a big break at foreign festivals is to film people living in squalid conditions and to affirm Western stereotypes about third-world countries. Ospina responded to the indecent exploitation of poverty both as a co-creator of a manifesto on so-called porn misery (Manifesto da Pornomiséria) and with his act of protest The Vampires of Poverty (1977). In a scathing mockumentary, Mayolo plays the role of a director who is so desperate to capture shocking footage from the slums that he doesn’t hesitate to stage it all just for the camera. Sharp criticism of capitalism and the hypocrisy of left-leaning artists not only earned both filmmakers great fame, but also resulted in animosity from their peers. However, their position as underground outcasts gave them independence. - dafilms
