The Winners
WINNERS OF THE 2003 GRANT
Thanks to successful fundraising events, the Alter-Cine Foundation was this year able to award two grants of US $ 10,000 each.
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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.
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SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
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.
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LEILA KILANI, 33, from Morocco, won the second grant for her project “Chroniques des années de plomb”, about the use of torture in her country's recent past. The jury was impressed with Leila's determination to break through the wall of silence that surrounds this subject, and the strong characters who will make up the voice of her film.
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SUMMARY OF THE PROJECT
From the 1960s to the 1990s, torture was used systematically by the state in Morocco. Several tens of thousand of citizens were persecuted and detained because of their opinions. Widely used, torture was help up as a threat to anyone who might contemplate opposition to the monarchy. It was effective in suppressing virtually all independent political activity. Branded as traitors, real and suspected opponents of the king were detained for years in secret, remote camps. Leila's film will give voice to some of those who carry the physical and mental scars of “the years of lead”
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