Short Film Exhibition: CARTOGRAPHIES OF CONTEMPORARY COLOMBIA

As a major program addition to the inaugural London Colombian Film Festival, this curated short film showcase provides a deeply humanizing window into the social fabric, historical memory, and resilient spirits navigating modern Colombia. Cartografías de la Colombia Contemporánea gathers four powerful shorts that explore family bonds, local subcultures, indigenous realities, and community-led sanctuaries that stand defiant against surrounding systemic challenges.

This evening features four extraordinary short films pushing the boundaries of documentary and narrative realism:

• Memorias (Directed by Andrés Bolaños): Born with congenital anosmia, filmmaker Andrés learns that his condition can distort memories and increase Alzheimer's risk. Plagued by self-doubt and grieving his father Edgar’s sudden death, Andrés fears the intimate bond they shared was imagined. To uncover the truth, he turns to nineteen Video8 tapes recorded by Edgar, launching a bittersweet, archival dialogue with his absent father to reconstruct their past and question the reliability of his own mind.
• Malicia (Directed by Edward Gómez Granada): A grit-infused street drama. Malicia and Chinga, two downhill bikers, reunite to remember their best friend, El Mono, who passed away a year ago. In a neighborhood where growing up means learning to survive, Chinga has his bike stolen, and Malicia is willing to do anything to get it back. The violence in the streets never stops, and while danger follows them, they are forced to play at being adults before their time.
• Sukua (Directed by Omar E. Ospina Giraldo): A poignant, localized narrative tracking Pirimín, a Kogui boy who receives a water gun as a gift. That night, he hears his father express his deep discontent, remembering when similar weapons forced their indigenous community to abandon their ancestral settlements. Suddenly, Pirimín doesn’t know what to do with his new toy.
• Unless we dance (Directed by F. Pinada / H. Rippe): A powerful, rhythmic tribute to community sanctuary. Bonays, an Afro-dance teacher, undertakes an initiative to rescue young people from the crime that stalks Quibdó, a city with the highest homicide rates in Colombia. This is how Black Boys Chocó emerged—a dance company where hundreds of young people face brutal destinies through an unyielding passion. The film portrays union and dance as the greatest expression of shielding the Afro people, standing as a tribute to their act of resilience and to all the lives that have been lost along the way.

Short Description: The Official Selection & Festival Context

The Short Film Exhibition forms a vital laboratory within the first edition of the London Colombian Film Festival. Operating in perfect harmony with the festival's overarching general objective, this selection deliberately spotlights uncommon cinematographic narratives that move beyond the superficial, habitual global headlines of violence and drugs. By redirecting international attention toward the underlying magic, deep resilience, immense talent, and creative dreams at the core of the culture, the program uncovers a richer, far more complex portrait of the nation's identity.

This screening perfectly embodies the festival's defining theme: "Celebrating Diversity of Voices." Rather than presenting static historical reports, Cartografías de la Colombia Contemporánea utilizes cinema as an essential living repository of oral history, urban subcultures, and ancestral memory. It proudly amplifies intersectional, Afro-descendant, indigenous, and youth perspectives, proving that the national film industry possesses the technical sophistication and creative empathy to capture the complex spiritual nuances of modern cultural preservation on the world stage.

Join us at Instituto Cervantes for an intimate, deeply moving evening of cinema that honors the memory, rhythm, and resilient voices of contemporary Colombia!