Mama Goema: The Cape Town Beat in Five Movements

Carlitos Medellin

October 2004 •Spanish

This documentary reveals the most violent part of the most violent city (Medellin) of the most violent country (Colombia) in the world. For around 75 minutes, different people from Medellin explain how difficult it is to live and survive in a city where violence, weapons, killing is common. Everyday, someone you know may die or get wounded by one of the different armed factions that struggle throughout the country and in the cities to take control over the population, drug cartel, politics, etc... sometimes for no reasons at all but fun.

The Endless Summer

June 1966 •English

Bruce Brown's The Endless Summer is one of the first and most influential surf movies of all time. The film documents American surfers Mike Hynson and Robert August as they travel the world during California’s winter (which, back in 1965 was off-season for surfing) in search of the perfect wave and ultimately, an endless summer.

Pop, Lock 'n Roll

September 2017 •English

Loaded with a love story and set in the club scene in Cape Town, it’s a feel good rags to riches film about Raps, a gifted young dancer from the Cape Flats who thinks all he needs is fame and money. However, it all gets complicated when he falls in love with the gorgeous young wife of the gangster-cum-producer who’s making his career happen.

Gamin

July 1977 •Spanish

After an extensive immersion work on abandoned childhood, Ciro Durán presents, from his point of view, the life of street children, who have broken all family ties and have regrouped to survive in the concrete jungle.

Colombia in My Arms

November 2022 •Finnish

After 52 years of armed conflict the FARC guerrillas are about to hand over their arms in exchange for political participation and social inclusion of the poor. Ernesto is one of them. The much celebrated Colombian peace agreement throws Ernesto and the polarised society around him into chaos in which everyone is afraid of the future and their own survival.

The History of the Pink Trunk

November 2005 •Spanish

In 1945, in the train station of Bogota, Colombia, a dead girl is found in a trunk. The case is assigned to Detective Mariano Corzo, he has to deal with an inquisitive journalist Hipólito Mosquera while trying to solve the mysterious case. Nobody knows who the girl is, or who put her in the trunk. The things turn bad when Mosquera publish the news in the local newspaper. With the help of a bartender Martina Quijano, Corzo will find an answer for the question: Who killed the girl and why?

The Wind Journeys

April 2009 •Spanish

After his wife's death, a vallenato singer from Majagual, Sucre, decides to quit music and return his allegedly cursed accordion to his master. He is joined by Fermín Morales, a teenage boy who admires him and wishes to follow his footsteps. Together, they start a journey throughout several towns in Northern Colombia to Taroa, in La Guajira desert, where the singer's master supposedly lives.

A Normal Daughter: The Life and Times of Kewpie of District Six

May 2000 •Afrikaans

Before South Africa’s apartheid government in the 1970’s destroyed District Six, being gay, or “moffie,” was an accepted part of this racially and religiously diverse community in Cape Town. Kewpie's hairdressing salon was the epicenter of this culture, a meeting place where the “girls” organized drag balls and cabaret performances, all of which are captured through her amazing collection of snapshots.

Cumbia

April 1973 •English

The story revolves around Evaristo who¸ accompanied by his drum¸ dreams of becoming a great figure and imposing his music on the whole world. Evaristo composes cumbias and more cumbias on his ranch and then in jail¸ where adverse situations take him. Meanwhile his delusions begin to come true¸ and without knowing it¸ his name and rhythm become famous.

La Buena Vida - The Good Life

January 2015 •German

The village of Tamaquito lies deep in the forests of Colombia. Here, nature provides the people with everything they need. But the Wayúu community's way of life is being destroyed by the vast and rapidly growing El Cerrejón coal mine. Determined to save his community from forced resettlement, the leader Jairo Fuentes negotiates with the mine's operators, which soon becomes a fight to survive.

It All Started at the End

September 2015 •Spanish

An intimate portrait of the pioneering artistic collective Grupo de Cali, whose work is now considered a fundamental part of Colombia’s film history.

The Penny War

December 1985 •Spanish

Drivers of urban public transport in Bogotá do not receive a fixed salary¸ only a percentage per passenger picked up. Through the testimony of two champions of this daily war¸ an unpleasant daily life is shown¸ distressing and dangerous¸ both for the users and for the drivers themselves los and from which the only ones who benefit are the great transport entrepreneurs¸ true architects of a bloody war in which the State is hardly an indolent spectator.

A Matter of Land

March 2015 •Spanish

A Matter of Land recounts the first year of application of Colombian's Land Restitution Act from the perspective of a community who decide to engage with the process. The film explores the tensions that arise when such communities come face to face with the complex institutions responsible for enforcing the law. The result of these tensions is a narrative worthy of Kafka, in which a doorway to justice is opened for the sole purpose of demonstrating that no one can pass through it.

Bomba Estereo - SesioneS con Alejandro Franco (Temporada 7)

March 2014 •Spanish

Foreign Wars

June 2016 •Spanish

From the land of narco-violence to the land of displaced persons. The documentary Guerras Ajenas ('Wars of Others') explores the consequences of the war on drugs in Colombia, and one of its main tools: aerial spraying.

The Umbrella Men

September 2022 •English

A ragtag bunch of musicians are forced to rob a bank during the Cape Town Minstrel Carnival in the hope they will save their iconic, but in-debt nightclub in the Bo Kaap.

When Multinationals Attack Nation States

December 2016 •French

In autumn 2016, demonstrations sprang up all over Europe against the CETA free-trade agreement between the European Union and Canada. The reason? An obscure clause which allows multinationals to sue nation states if they feel their profits may be damaged by government decisions. An investigation into the hidden world of international arbitration.

Tomorrow's Power

March 2017 •English

Tomorrow’s Power is a feature length documentary that showcases three communities around the world and their responses to economic and environmental emergencies they are facing. In the war-torn, oil-rich Arauca province in Colombia, communities have been building a peace process from the bottom up. In Germany activists are pushing the country to fully divest from fossil-fuel extraction and complete its transition to renewable energy. In Gaza health practitioners are harnessing solar power to battle daily life-threatening energy blackouts in hospitals.

In the Land of Diamonds

October 1952 •English

This Traveltalk series short visits South Africa, including Cape Town.

Rodrigo D. No Future

July 1990 •Spanish

Rodrigo is a marginalized and lonely being who prefers to die before being forced to kill. He finds himself trapped in a city that oppresses him, calls him, marginalizes him.