By Maribel Arenas Vadillo |
Bogotá (EFE).- For the Spanish filmmaker Pilar Palomero, “La Maternal”, her second feature film, constitutes a “mirror” in which the Tumaqueñas of the Colombian department of Nariño could “see themselves reflected” as their realities were crossed by problems such as early motherhood or gender violence.
“They themselves told me that the film spoke directly to them about experiences that they felt very close to. That is the most beautiful thing that can happen to you as a filmmaker,” said Palomero in an interview with EFE in Bogotá on the occasion of the Spanish Film Festival, organized by the Ministry of Culture of the Embassy of Spain.
Although the film was also screened in the cities of Cali and Bogotá, the Spanish said that in the so-called “Pearl of the Pacific” she felt that the reception in the room was “very personal” and not as a “witness” but as a “protagonist ”.
However, he admitted that, compared to Spain, in Colombia “the social message” of “La Maternal” has “more imprint.”
The director, who had not stayed at the screening of the film since its premiere at the San Sebastian Festival, confessed that she did in Tumaco (southwest) because she wanted to see “how the room vibrated when reacting to the story of Carla, a teenager who discovers that she is pregnant with her best friend at 5 months of gestation.
“Something that has made me very excited about this projection is to see how a reality as singular as that of some girls from the towns of Barcelona has connected with this place in the Pacific of Colombia”, explained Palomero after defining it as one of the “greatnesses of the cinema” the possibility of turning the “concrete” into “universal”.
“La Maternal”, a “tool” to raise awareness
One of the main fears that the director confessed to having experienced during filming was that of falling into disrespect, condescension, paternalism or judgment, after having learned first-hand the true story of a group of adolescent mothers housed in a center special residence for them.
In this sense, and although he admitted that his objective was not “to do pedagogy”, after the projection in a room of the “Nuevo Horizonte” Music School in Tumaco “several people” asked the director for the film to project it in their centers educational and thus use it as a “tool” to combat the normalization of pregnancies “at 14 years”.
“Someone told me that if (adolescent) pregnancy is stigmatized in the film because it is usually exceptional in Spain, in Tumaco it is not even stigmatized because it is already considered normal,” added Palomero.
The importance of community cinema
From her time in this area of the Pacific, the filmmaker claimed the importance of community cinema made by production companies such as Marea Producciones, a team made up of three social groups from Tumaco who meet to tell the stories of the region.
After seeing three of his short films made in a single day with a cell phone as a camera and another that hangs from a stick as a microphone, Palomero was able to reaffirm his idea that “cinema and art are an engine of change and transformation.” , especially in places like this.
Questioned about her future projects, this director who adopted as a tradition buying a “brilli-brilli” pen for each project, admitted having acquired a new golden one for her new production: “Los Destellos”.
Based on one of the stories by the Spanish writer Eider Rodríguez, Palomero will return to the big screen with a love story related to the death of a loved one where memory, memory and mourning are combined in a story that vindicates the importance of taking care of one’s each other.