LA ESCUELA

24 mins, HD video, colour, 2018

Exhibited: La Escuela, Gasworks (2018). La Escuela, Sin Lugar a Dudas (Colombia, 2018).
Press release in English

This film was developed at Gasworks with Marlen Cabezas, director of Escuela Gabriel García Márquez in Vauxhall, and in collaboration with a number of Latin American organisations in South London. An expansive workshop process explored the intersection of personal biographies with complex and sometimes violent national histories. A feat of community organisation, La Escuela takes the form of a school assembly, incorporating diverse musical and aesthetic heritages. Our protagonist, Mariana, is an avatar of the intellectual and imaginative work of the women involved in the project. She guides us through a story of migration, hardship, and the coming together of communities in the face of the systemic forces that threaten them. Three individuals from the participating organisations play Mariana at different stages of her life: as a young child growing up in Colombia, as a teenager arriving in the UK, and then as an adult living in London who has set up La Escuela.

With Escuela Gabriel García Márquez, Sin Fronteras, Latin American Women's Rights Service, Martha Hinestrosa, and Cali Swing.