BIRDS OF PASSAGE

Directors: Ciro Guerra & Cristina Gallego, 2018 Colombia

Monday 17 July 2023 / Time: 6.40 pm / @ Peckhamplex Cinema

Birds of Passage (Spanish: Pájaros de verano) is a 2018 epic crime film directed by Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego. They created  this really startling and intriguing movie, which was Colombia’s shortlisted entry for best foreign film in the 2019 Oscars Academy Awards.

Set in the 70s, with the rise of hippie culture amongst the American youth, the marijuana bonanza hits Colombia. The film explores the rise of a Wayuu man and his family as they enter the drug trade, prosperity posing a threat to their traditions and former way of life. The filmmakers based the film on real stories they heard during their research phase and incorporated members of the community into their production. 

According to the directors about 30% of the cast and crew was made up of local Wayuu people. We are used to drug-gangland movies that hinge on family and the nuances of power and generational conflict. There is a different kind of anthropology going on here, a different assessment of class, status, tribe and taboo. It is a drama of capital and empire and people whose culture has already been affected by the Spanish and is now about to be affected by the English-speakers of the north. The film is one of the highest-rated of 2018. Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 86 out of 100, based on 24 critics, indicating universal acclaim.

Director: Alan Ereira, 1990 TV Documentary, UK

Tuesday 18 July 2023 / Time: 7 pm / @ PeckhamLevels

‘Imagine a pyramid standing alone by the sea, each side a hundred miles long. It’s a mountain nearly four miles high. In its folds imagine every different climate on earth. This is the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and the people hidden here call the Sierra the Heart of the World and themselves the Elder Brothers.’ Alan Ereira

So starts the film From the Heart of the World - the Elder Brothers’ Warning’ made by TV producer Alan Ereira and first broadcast on the BBC way back in December 1990. The film revealed for the first time the lives of the indigenous peoples of the Sierra, (in particular the Kogi people), descendants of the Taironas who retreated into the remote landscape to escape the ruthless extremes of Spanish rule in South America in the 16th century and where they have maintained an isolated existence ever since. Take a glimpse into their lives and hear the powerful warning they deliver concerning the destruction of the environment.

*The Kogi are the last surviving civilization from the days of the Inca and Aztec. They see themselves as the spiritual guardians of life on earth. For four centuries they lived in seclusion in the Sierra Nevada mountains, carefully guarding their isolation. When the tribal elders began observing signs of ecological crisis in the changing patterns of snow and bird migration, they emerged from their seclusion, inviting BBC filmmaker Alan Ereira to record their prophetic message to the world.*

Director: Alan Ereira, 2012 UK Documentary film

Thursday 20 July 2023 / Time: 7 pm / @ Peckham Levels

From the Heart of the World made a significant impact, It helped to shape the Rio Conference, led to the King of Spain visiting the Kogi and brought about a complete transformation in the Colombian attitude to their indigenous people. But its environmental warning went mostly unheeded as it did not resonate with the political agenda of the day.

In the following decades the Kogi just could not understand why their message had been ignored and why nothing had really changed so in 2009 they called Alan back to start discussions on making a follow up documentary film Aluna..

This time the Kogi felt the need to physically demonstrate the reality of environmental pollution in their physical environment and to show how easily critical interconnections within the natural world can be damaged or destroyed. They were keen to show that action at one specific site can affect other sites many miles away. For this film they learnt to use cameras so the film includes their own footage.

Watch they walk along the invisible Black Line to explain how it connects a series of environmentally powerful 'hot spots' along the Caribbean Coast. Hear their own views and follow commentary from Western scientists about what is happening on the cost. The film was released in 2012.