Screenings + Conversations

Marta Rodríguez has spent decades gathering the voices, experiences, and cosmogonies of the peasant and indigenous peoples of Colombia, in some of the areas where coca and poppy are grown. These screenings and discussions (Craigmillar and Glasgow) propose alternative ways of approaching the issue of drug production and trade, contextualising the substance chains that link Colombia to Scotland – a country with historically high consumption rates.

Craigmillar, Edinburgh (Free entry)
When: Wednesday 10 January (17:45)
Where: Craigmillar Library (101 Niddrie Mains Road, Edinburgh, EH16 4BG)
This event will be introduced by the Scottish charity Crew 2000

Glasgow

When: Wednesday 24 January (19:00)
Where: CCA – Centre for Contemporary Arts (350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, G2 3JD)

At the end of the screening there will be a conversation panel with Dr María Antonia Vélez Serna (University of Stirling) and Dr Andrei Gomez-Suarez (University of Winchester)

About the films:

Marta Rodríguez. Colombian Filmmaker

Long before Colombia became a flashpoint of the war on drugs, Marta Rodríguez was already filming and talking with some of the Indigenous and peasant communities that would get caught up in it. These two video pieces, made in the middle of a long career, are unpretentious, urgent works that ask audiences to listen to people as they grapple with the arrival of illicit cash crops, followed by deadly herbicides. Rodríguez’s own archive places these moments in a long history of colonial land grabs and dispossession, in which Indigenous relationships to the territory and their sacred plants have been denigrated and suppressed.

La hoja sagrada / The Sacred Leaf
Director: Marta Rodríguez
Country: Colombia
Year: 2001
Duration: 52 minutes

This documentary explores the contrast between two perceptions of the coca plant. While indigenous communities understand it as a sacred and medicinal food, they suffer the impacts of glyphosate fumigation as the ‘war on drugs’ blames them for illicit cultivation. Through this line, The Sacred Leaf is an approach to the indigenous community of Guambia (Cauca), where Rodríguez’s interviewees expose this situation as a consequence of historical injustices, and look for solutions that respect culture and life.

Amapola, la flor maldita / Poppy, The Cursed Flower
Directors: Marta Rodríguez and Lucas Silva
Country: Colombia
Year: 1998
Duration: 32 minutes

This film documents the rise of poppy cultivation to produce heroin in Colombia during the early 90s. Drug traffickers, who brought in the poppy seed, enter the indigenous territories creating criminal gangs that attack the entire community. Faced with this panorama, the Indigenous people and peasants explain the need for social approaches to the problem, rather than state repression.

About the guests: 

Crew 2000 (Scottish Charity)

Crew 2000 (Scotland) reduces harm and stigma associated with stimulant drug and alcohol use by providing a range of services for young people, their families, friends and communities. Since 1992, we’ve grown from a purely volunteer-led organisation, started by ‘loved-up club bunnies’ to a mixed professional and volunteer team achieving the ‘Investing in Volunteers’ award and the GSK ‘IMPACT Award’ twice.

“We neither condemn nor condone drug use: we exist to reduce harm, challenge perceptions and help people make positive choices about their use of cannabis, stimulant and other social drugs and sexual health by providing non-judgemental, credible and up to date information and support.” Crew 2000

Dr María A. Vélez-Serna teaches film and media at the University of Stirling. She is the author of Ephemeral Cinema Spaces (Amsterdam University Press, 2020), and co-author of Early Cinema in Scotland (Edinburgh University Press, 2018). She has also published on archive film, early film distribution and showmanship, Colombian films and historical audiences. She studied at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the University of Glasgow.

Dr Andrei Gomez-Suarez is Senior Research Fellow in Reconciliation and Peacebuilding at the Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace, University of Winchester. He is Co-founder of Embrace Dialogue (Rodeemos el Diálogo, ReD). He is also Honorary Research Associate at the Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies, University of Bristol, and Research Associate at Positive Negatives. He is author of Genocide, Geopolitics and Transnational Networks (Routledge, 2015), El Triunfo del No (Ícono, 2016) and producer of La Confianza and Jessica: Coca Growing, Stigmatisation, Violence and Development in Colombia and Colombia’s Broken Peace. He has been researcher at the Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, the Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research, and the UCL Institute of the Americas, and has worked for the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, the Ombudsman Office, and the International Organization for Migrations.