Coca crisis
Melora Koepke
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German Gutierrez: Sociological detective
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German Gutierrez digs into Colombia's social ills, and finds more cola than coke at the root of the problem
Documentary as demon chasing: It's an old story, and a good one. When Montreal-based documentary filmmaker German Gutierrez first embarked on his latest documentary, it was with an aim of uncovering personal and political truths that would excise the fear and worry he felt after an event in his far-off Colombian homeland. Gutierrez himself has lived in Montreal for almost 30 years, and for much of those decades he has lived with a particular worry: that his brother Oscar, an outspoken left-wing politician elected to the departmental assembly of Caldas, Colombia, would be the victim of an assassination attempt. One day (as Gutierrez faithfully re-enacts in the film's prologue), as he was walking down snowy Mont-Royal Avenue, the call came. As Oscar drove with his mother, wife and two children on a mountain road, two hired killers on a motorcycle had taken shots at his head, immobilizing his shoulder and splintering his jaw.
Oscar Gutierrez recovered, and went back to his political activities. But worry for his brother, and a desire to become a sociological detective of sorts, inspired German to embark on a personal investigation, handheld camera in tow, to determine who shot his Oscar.
Only the resulting documentary, grippingly entitled Who Shot My Brother? (in French it's Qui a tiré sur mon frère?), doesn't delve very deeply into who shot Oscar Gutierrez at all.
"In the beginning, my first idea was to go talk to all the people involved in producing the violence in Colombia...
to question them until I could trace back to what happened to my brother," says German Gutierrez."But all the people around me said, 'German, that's crazy. You can't go poking around asking questions about assassinations. They will kill you, for sure.'"
Gutierrez determined that the more pressing issue, for him, was not to find the actual gunmen who chased his brother, but to determine the wider social causes that facilitated an assassination attempt. He doggedly chased leads all over Colombia, and ended up with something less sensationalistic, for sure, but ultimately more useful: a sort of Colombia 101 course that explains certain pressing social issues in this beautiful, troubled country where, stats show, 48 people die violent deaths every day.
"In a sense, I owe a great debt to my producers, for their generosity in financial terms and for their open-mindedness," says Gutierrez. "A lot of producers would have just said, 'German, make a movie about why someone tried to kill your brother, it's enough.' But they encouraged me to take as much time as I needed - I went back to Colombia five times, this was not a film we shot in two weeks' time - until I had everything that I needed."
"Everything he needed," apparently, was a wildly veering patchwork of social causes, which were pursued to their unfolding by Gutierrez's camera. These included a documenting of the barely known Coca-Cola case, in which paramilitary soldiers paid by American interests killed eight union leaders in a Coca-Cola plant; the gunning down of civilians in the hamlet of Santo Domingo by paramilitary troops aided by private American military contractors; and a rally in which the paramilitary Catatumbo soldiers laid down their arms (in return for immunity from prosecution and the right to run for political office).
What Gutierrez does not chase, surprisingly, is the one notable social issue Colombia is famed for: its production of illegal drugs and role as a target in the American war on drugs. When pressed, Gutierrez, who has already made a movie about the drug trade (1998's Societies Under the Influence), shrugs.
"The war on drugs is so, so not the issue here," he says. "There is [plenty of documentation] on the ways in which drugs are so not the only story, or even the story, of Colombia... from the '50s to the '80s, the communists were the guys to fight, and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, it is the war on drugs that mattered. Now, after 9/11, we hear only talk of terrorists. Soon, we will be hearing more talk of 'narcoterrorists.' [The Americans] need an excuse to fight the mafias and the guerrillas as they go deeper and deeper into the politics of Latin America."
"What [the rest of the world thinks they know about us] is that all the problems we have, in Colombia, come from drugs. This is not true. It's easy for people to think that, because that's the way the journalists report on things. It is much easier and more spectacular to follow a drug story, because then you think you really have a story to follow, but it's not a true story. The problem is the unequal distribution of wealth," he continues firmly.
Gutierrez seems happy with his expanded field of inquiry, though he states near the end of the film that, still, he will always wonder who shot his brother. Has the film seen any reaction in Colombia, from Oscar - who now wears Kevlar and carries a gun wherever he goes - and his people?
"The oddest thing that I did not expect was that the film goes over there in much the same way as it does here [in Canada]," he says. "You would think Colombians would not need a Colombia 101 course. But they do not know what is going on in their own country, because it cannot be reported properly there."
Clearly, Colombian nationals are no more certain of who shot Oscar Gutierrez than German Gutierrez is.
Who Shot My Brother?
| Journey into a violent land, armed with only a camera |
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It is a testament to the power of this documentary that, in competition with 19 fiction feature films, "Who Shot My Brother?" won the People's Choice Award at this year's Festival du Nouveau Cinema.
Gutierrez' exploration of the reality of life in Colombia juxtaposes that country's startlingly beautiful landscapes and abundant natural resources with a harsh human reality: it is one of the most turbulent places on the planet. Generations of corrupt politicians, class inequalities and civil war have left a frayed social fabric, in which human rights and human life are afforded little value. The influx of huge amounts of money from the drug trade and from the so-called "war on drugs" have given wealth to a few, but mostly have degraded the natural environment and added to the poverty and suffering of the majority.
And so we see the victims of a pitiless struggle: destitute internal refugees displaced from their villages and farms, teenaged soldiers maimed by land mines, Union organizers and a small group courageous activists facing repression and reprisal every day...
In the end, we cannot know who shot the filmmaker's brother. The suspects are many, all armed to the teeth and each with a history of "resolving" problems through brutal means. All are entwined in a spiraling cycle of turmoil, violence and the resulting paranoia - these constitute the tragedy of daily life for most of the inhabitants of that bounteous country called Colombia.
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Francisco Uribe
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{38 votes}
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One may be astounded by the courage the director had when armed only with a camera but there is not much alse to do when so much of what happens in Latin America is hidden from view. Life in much of Latin America hinges on the drug cartel and it isn't easy to shake off especially when you have American and other influentail military backers there to make sure the trade continues. And the physical reality of violence is escalating along with the distrust of foreign aid involvement. Since it is unlikely that the livelihood iduced by the drug trade is going to change, the best thing to work for is a change in how its profits are distributed. There is too much of a gap between rich and poor. German should just as well do a documnetary on proposals for the redistribution of wealth in countries obsessed with the drug trade abuse.
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Martin Dansky
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{3 votes}
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| Film Review 101/German Gutierrez' frightening but true Columbian doc, Who Shot My Brother? |
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If you've never been outside of North America and those lovely latin vacation getaways that they're always pushing in the travel brochures then you really haven't a clue as to the true hell that is South America. Some countries are better off than others but overall we're talking about a standard of living that we wouldn't put up with if our life depended on it...and in their cases it often does. Drug cartels, military regimes, poverty and poor health on an incalculable scale are just a few of the problems you'll face if you look beyond the glossy lies we've embraces so that we can sleep better at night. German Gutierrez' "Who Shot My Brother?" offers a grim glimpse at what the 6 o'clock news chooses to skim over. I suspect that this is not the best time to release this project but if it has the staying power I suspect it does then you'll get your chance to take it all in after the holidays are over and done with.
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Pedro Eggers
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{31 votes}
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To me what was most astounding in this film is the courage demonstrated by the two main protagonists, the filmmaker and his brother - on whom the assasination attempt was made.
It is easy to denounce groups and situations from a distance, but it takes much courage to denounce while being in the middle of the action and an active member of that society, especially such a violent one. I also very much appreciated the will to show the ills of Columbia, other than drug production. If you want to know more, I recommend the books by Michael Taussig, an anthropologist who has been going to the same village in Columbia for many decades. His books are always an interesting read. To all who dare to go against Columbia's violent forces, chapeau!
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Andreanne Grimard
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{12 votes}
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