Description:

“The land belongs to those who work it, not the thieves who stole it.” --Nuestra Voz

An essential yet underseen work of Latin American political cinema, NUESTRA VOZ DE TIERRA, MEMORIA Y FUTURO (Our Voice of Earth, Memory & Future) is a poetic nonfiction essay on the centuries-long resistance by indigenous farmers of Colombia’s Coconuco region. Between fantastical visualizations of myth and legend, the film documents the development of the CRIC, the Regional Indigenous Council of Cauca, and their defiant efforts to take back ancestral earth from a long history of land grabs—a record the film traces from Spanish conquistadors to the Catholic Church to the current wealthy landowners. Trailblazing figures in Colombia’s documentary tradition, Marta Rodriguez and Jorge Silva collaborated with an indigenous council made up of peasant cooperative members throughout all stages of the making of NUESTRA VOZ; together they develop a process that blends the material realities of documentary with narrative recreations of native cosmology. The result is a striking nonfiction epic and a singular contribution to revolutionary cinema.

Digital restoration courtesy of Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst.