Fiction of War
videographer & edited by sheila franklin
directed & produced by ravi khanna
"Fiction of War provides a very rare look into the complexity of Colombia's internal conflict. The documentary allows those who suffer most in Colombia's 50 year old war -- the civilian population -- to tell their personal stories..."
Alison Giffen, Director U.S.-Colombia Coordinating Office
"I had the opportunity to watch Fiction of War and I highly recommend this video for audiences that want to learn more about the real causes of the war in Colombia. The video presents the voices of the people telling their reality in a beautifully crafted sequence of powerful images."
Cecilia Zarate-Laun, Co-Founder & Program Director - Colombia Support Network
Review in NACLA's magazine Report On The Americas
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BACKGROUND
Colombia has been engaged in a civil war for over 50 years. Political violence and human rights abuses have escalated to epidemic proportions. Since 1988, the Data Bank of the Commision Inter- Congregacional de Justicia y Paz, a Colombian human rights organization, has reported a total of 67,000 deaths. That is an average of 702 per month or 23.4 per day. U.S. military and police aid to this beleaguered country has totaled over three quarters of a billion dollars in the last decade. Military aid was increased to over $240 million this year after the election of President Pastrana.
The documentary contrasts statements made by public and military officials with those of human rights workers, church and community leaders, the displaced, and what we ourselves witnessed. You will hear of the hopes and aspirations of the people and the callous responses of political leaders and military commanders.
Despite the violence, the people in this community, many of whom are displaced from neighboring villages, are managing to live with dignity and a certain level of self-sufficiency. It is governed by a citizen's council consisting of representatives from the various areas of origin.
"Fiction of War" focuses on the human rights situation in the country. Many people who spoke to us are living under threats of death or disappearance. A few of the participants have been the targets of assassination or kidnapping since the taping. They were anxious for us to tell their story to as many people as we could. You will hear their stories in their own voices.
Order Information
Fiction of War a documentary by Sheila Franklin and Ravi Khanna,
By 1world Production, 43 minutes
"The population has to take sides with the authorities because the ones who have been displaced are delinquents, or guerrillas, or paramilitaries. So I don’t understand the concept of neutrality."
These are the words of a Colombian military officer in the opening scene of Fiction of War. The quote illustrates the prevailing view of the Colombian military toward the principal victims of the ongoing civil war--civilians who are not linked to any of the armed actors in the conflict. The documentary allows these victims to tell their stories in their own words and without the aid of a narrator, dramatizing the devastating nature of Colombia’s civil war.
Through these interviews, Franklin reveals that the concept of neutrality is in fact alive and well and being put into practice in Colombia’s war zones. A resident of a community for the displaced in the municipality of Turbo, for example, explains how his family was forced to flee their home by the Colombian army and the paramilitaries; like tens of thousands of campesinos who are not involved with any of the warring factions, they sought to retain their neutrality by seeking safe haven in other parts of the country. A resident of San José de Apartadó describes the struggle of this peace community to keep the men with guns at arms’ length and assert their neutrality.
Fiction of War makes its point with up-close and personal interviews. Workers at the Center for Justice and Peace, a human rights organization, describe how the military forced them to the floor at gunpoint before searching their offices. A priest describes a massacre that occurred while he was saying mass in Portacarpa that resulted in seven deaths. Another priest explains how paramilitaries entered a poor slum area neighborhood on the outskirts of Barrancabermeja, killing eight people and kidnapping 40 more who were never seen or heard from again.
One of the most enlightening interviews in the film is conducted with former Colombian Army Colonel Carlos Valásquez, who explains that the paramilitaries sometimes "do the work" of the army, resulting in what he calls a "dirty" compromise for the military. He also describes how the paramilitaries force people from their land for the druglords so that they can launder their money by purchasing the vacated properties.
The sometimes unsteady handheld camera and lack of narration enhances the impact of Fiction of War by creating a powerful intimacy between the viewer and the many victims. The film drives home the fact that the innocent civilians, especially the poor, are the principal victims of this war.
--Garry M. Leach
03/13/2000
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