Winners
Winner 2003
Hemel Atehortua
HEMEL ATEHORTUA, a 23 year-old filmmaker from Colombia, won a grant for his project, “Sonson: Laboratory of Peace”, about a small community that resists threats from all sides to draw it into the brutal conflict in the country and instead tries to build local democracy. Our seven-member jury was impressed with the courage of the villagers and the importance of their effort for all of Colombia, as well as with Hemel’s approach to telling the story.
The film is co-directed by Nelson Restrepo.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
In Sonson, situated in the Andean foothills a hundred kilometres from the city of Medellin, the population has been organizing to fight against several factions that abuse their power. Forgotten by the government, targets of armed attacks, they nevertheless refuse to be drawn into the conflict and instead try to organize their own forms of local democracy.
Several years ago, I was wandering the streets of the neighbourhood of Santo Domingo Savio in Medellin, Colombia, where I live. It was full of impoverished, disenfranchised youth with no future, who have been shunned by society. Nine years later, I am moved to realise that life has allowed me to take up the camera rather than the gun. I thank the Alter-Ciné Foundation for giving me the opportunity to make a documentary in a country where filmmaking implies taking risks, even death. With the Alter-Ciné Foundation grant I made “Bajo todos los fuegos”, a story that reflects hope in the face of an absurd and silent war, hope incarnated in the youth with whom I identify. Now more than ever, I wish there were 10,000 foundations such as yours around the world to help people like myself to make documentaries. Films that thrive to tell the world of specific realities inherent to all human beings, with voices far different than those reflected by corporate news agencies.
– Hemel Atehortua