Watch video – U.S. premiere of Colombia hip hop documentary to show at Latino Film Festival
Posted by Elena del Valle on November 9, 2007
“Frekuensia Kolombiana” poster
Photos/video: Frekuensia Kolombiana, Choquib Town, Por Razones de Estado
The United States premiere of a 58-minute documentary film that explores traditional forms of Colombian music and their relationship to hip hop will be at this year’s International Latino Film Festival in the San Francisco Bay Area. Produced in Spanish with English subtitles, “Frekuensia Kolombiana” will be screened Saturday, November 17 at 8 pm at the Macla Castellano Playhouse in San Jose, California. Scroll down to watch the film trailer.
Promoters are planning a tour of the film for early 2008 with stops in Chicago, New York, Dallas, Austin, Miami, Los Angeles and Puerto Rico. Also in the works is a special fundraising event and screening in Chicago to raise funds for non profit hip hop organizations in Colombia.
Por Razones de Estado, producers of political lyrics of Colombian hip hop
According to promotional materials, the film uses interviews, events, situations and landscapes to uncover the voice of the street in Colombia and a youth that “constructs from exclusion a movement of hope and truth.” The documentary showcases Camajan Club, Por Razones de Estado, DJ Fresh, Fondo Blanco, Choc Quib Town, K Music, Por Razones de Estado, SMA, Kamahan Club, La HeroiK and Zona Marginal.
Directed by Vanessa Gocksch and produced by Vanessa Gocksch and Walter Hernandez “Frekuensia Kolombiana” is the second documentary by Gocksch about this theme in Colombia. The first, “Testimonios Hip Hop Colombiano: Año 2000,” won Best Documentary Short in the first edition of the H20 Film Festival in New York City. In the United States, the film is represented by Tinta Roja Projects.
Afro-Colombian hip hop group Choquib Town from Quibdo on the Pacific coast of Colombia
Gocksch is based in Cartagena de Indias on the Caribbean coast of Colombia. She studied visual arts with an emphasis in sculpture at Florida International University, La Cambre and Universidad Autonoma de Mexico. She has worked with sculpture, etching, photography, installation, performance and video. Her work has been exhibited in galleries and festivals in Mexico, Colombia, United States, Canada, Finland and England. In 2000, she began working with multimedia. She performs as a video jockey under the name of Pata de Perro, and develops the communication project Intermundos.
Hernandez, a professor in a Bogota university, has been an active participant and creator of Colombian hip hop since 1989. He has produced events such as Rapkiya, one of the first hip hop events on the Caribbean coast of Colombia and hosted hip hop radio programs in Barranquilla and Bogotá, Colombia.
