Deaths in La Sierra
The final chapter of this thesis analyses the most recent of the four cultural products – Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez’s documentary La Sierra. It was filmed during 2003 and released in 2005, and follows the lives of three fourth world inhabitants - Edison, Cielo and Jesús - in the eponymous barrio, situated on the periphery of the city of Medellín. It is particularly powerful in its presentations of these narratives, each of which represents a different experience of life in the barrios marginales and is made more powerful by the knowledge that unlike the fictional film, La virgen de los sicarios, ‘documentaries address the world in which we live, rather than a world imagined by the filmmaker’.402 In this way, the stories are narrated through a series of
testimonies by each of the protagonists, which emphasises the strong sense of factuality and truth. However, as I go on to argue throughout this final chapter, documentary as a cinematic mode is subject to the same techniques as fictional films.403 In this documentary, I argue, the filmmakers frame their shots carefully, incorporating the mise-en-scene into a reflexive engagement with the audience. That is not to say that the material has been fabricated, simply that the locations for shots and the camera’s positioning and movements are carefully selected to convey an ongoing sense of dialogue with the audience through visual citation, as I go on to argue as the chapter progresses. The testimonies are devised through a series of interviews between filmmakers and subjects, in which only the subjects are visible. The interweaving of these testimonies give a sense of life in La Sierra for young people, yet the juxtaposition of the interview scenes also reveal much about the filmmakers’ own attempts to communicate with the eventual audience.
Academic comment upon La Sierra has a tendency to focus upon the political situation of violence in the city, as Deborah Martin’s thoughts illustrate: ‘It is too local, too specific to offer any totalising interpretation of the political context’.404 This focus
on the political context of violence makes it difficult to understand the potential global reach of the film as anything but an exploration of highly localised concerns. However, taking my approach of analysing attempts at engaging with the audience and focusing upon the increasing homogenisation in the representation of the fourth
402 Bill Nichols, Introduction to Documentary, 2nd ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2010), p. ix.
403 Nichols lists scripting, staging, re-enactments and performance among the techniques which are shared between
documentary and fictional film practices (p. ix).
404 Deborah Martin, ‘Paraíso terrenal, mujeres bellas, gente cordial: Gender Performances and Narratives of
world inhabitant allows this engagement with its more global reach. That is not to say that there are not important political issues represented in the documentary, but that my approach gives a different interpretation. The documentary, I argue, explores local conditions as they relate to global concerns and in particular the consumption of the fourth world inhabitant. Indeed, the documentary was produced for global consumption despite its local specificity. Unlike the previous cultural products analysed in this thesis, which were first released to a Colombian audience before being translated and distributed globally, La Sierra was released as a documentary targeted at a first world audience, largely the US market, playing at various international film festivals,405 and was shown on the US television series Independent
Lens, which focuses on independent films and documentaries.406 After its limited release, the documentary was distributed on DVD both by Icarus Films and First Run Features, as part of The Human Rights Watch Collection. Although filmed in a very local setting, the documentary as a cultural product is very much global.407 Like all
other cultural products explored in this thesis, the documentary establishes a strong engagement with its audience from the start, inviting these first world spectators to reflect on their practices relating to the consumption of the fourth world inhabitant as a violent actor. The filmmakers utilise diverse documentary modes to represent the barrio of La Sierra in different ways, contrasting the image of the fourth world usually consumed by the first world with a much more in depth and interactive mode of filming. The overarching purpose of this, I argue, is to highlight the structural violence behind these consumptive practices.
As I explore in this chapter, the most effective manner of achieving this audience engagement is in the contrasting of two dead bodies during the documentary. The narrative within the documentary progresses through the testimonies of the three protagonists and other members of the community to reach its culmination in Edison’s murder. This appears to be the central event within the narrative, and changes the tone in the testimonies of the remaining two protagonists, who look to the future and the possibilities these open up. I argue that although the testimonies play a central role in the narrative development, it is the imagery in the documentary which is most striking. It is my contention that the visual presentation of two bodies is the aspect of the film which demonstrates the structural violence of the consumption of the fourth world inhabitant as a violent actor. One of the dead bodies portrayed – that of Edison – has been accompanied by a narrative, whereas the first
405 For a full list of film festivals, see the documentary’s official website <http://www.lasierrafilm.com> [Accessed 19
May 2012].
406 Anonymous, About Us< http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/about/> [Accessed 19 May 2012]. 407 Martin (2009), p. 382.
body presented is not afforded a narrative, nor a name – he is a desechable. It is in this contrast between a narrative and its absence that the filmmakers provoke the audience to interrogate their own viewing practices in relation to the fourth world inhabitant. In my analysis of these contrasting presentations, I utilise theories developed by Judith Butler and Susan Sontag to explore the presentation of both Edison’s narrative, and of the bodies of the two fourth world inhabitants, to articulate the practices exercised by the filmmakers to engage its audience.
La Sierra attempts to question the consumptive practices of its audience relating to the fourth world using the local context of Medellín’s barrios marginales. I illustrate how it highlights the aspects of life that the fourth world sees, and those which are hidden. Unlike in other cultural products, there is a stark focus upon gender representations and how the visibility afforded to men and women at different stages of their lives varies significantly. In order to fully analyse this engagement, this discussion incorporates an analysis of both the documentary as film text and its marketing paratext. The paratext, I argue, contrasts markedly with the encoding of the film text, and so I provide a full analysis of the paratext and the links made to other cultural products and contexts. I argue that this contrast, whether deliberate or coincidental, only strengthens this engagement with the audience and provokes reflection upon their viewing choices relating to the consumption of the fourth world inhabitant.
Necessarily, the analysis incorporates documentary and narrative theory, a discussion of first/fourth world relations, and engages with contemporary discussions on the ethics of representing the Other. I begin with an exploration of the documentary modes used to establish the strong sense of audience engagement. This involves an analysis of the documentary’s opening scenes, before I go on to discuss the significance of the portrayal of the two dead bodies. I then explore further the representation of the three protagonists, ending the analysis of the documentary text with reflections upon the contrasting visibility of gender. I end the chapter with the paratextual analysis, before concluding.
Continuous Audience Engagement
La Sierra combines a number of the traditional documentary modes outlined by theorist Bill Nichols and these are utilised to foster audience engagement.408 This is achieved through a contrast between the opening scenes, which employ an
observational mode with little information, and a more participatory and interactive mode. The former replicates the representation typically afforded to the fourth world space, whilst the latter advocates a new presentation of the space and its inhabitants, as explored throughout the remainder of the film. This technique fosters an engagement with its audience throughout, provoking them to contemplate their own consumptive practices. The audiences are able to both react to and be informed by its subjects and subject matter, encouraging an active engagement with the complex networks of violence, both physical and structural, which continues to afflict many inhabitants of fourth world spaces in Colombia and the wider world. I now explore how the audience is first engaged in the film, through an exploration of the opening scenes. This pattern of audience engagement gives strength to this innovative documentary as one which tackles the representation and consumption of violence of the fourth world in Medellín.
The opening sequences, lasting 345 seconds, establish the portrayal of the city of Medellín in a nutshell. It can be the home of violence, of desechables and conflict, but it is also a vibrant city. The filmmakers in this way foreshadow the contrasts of life in La Sierra that their filming will illustrate. It follows a year in the life of three protagonists, through periods of joy and hardship. Observation and reflection are key to the opening scenes, and function to communicate with the audience, to foster a shared sense of responsibility for the events portrayed on screen. As the documentary continues, this sense increases. In addition, the participatory mode allows the filmmakers to give young people in La Sierra a voice which contradicts that of their representation according to myth. The filmmakers utilise a variety of techniques to engage with its audience to provoke reflection on their own role in the consumption of fourth world violence in Medellín. The documentary communicates with its audience to criticise the consumption of Colombian violence, and implicates the audience as complicit in its prolongation. While there is not space to analyse each aspect of the film, in this chapter I explore the representation of death and of gender, in order to highlight the filmmakers’ criticism of first world consumption of violence in the marginal barrios of Medellín.
In summary, the documentary opens with a long, aerial shot, framing an area of greenery in which lies a dead body. The following sequence focuses on that body, and on the audience which has gathered on the other side of a body of water to see the spectacle (whether this is the presence of a body or a film crew is unclear). The audience within the documentary, shown half way through the sequence of shots, represents the audiences who will watch the documentary. They watch without intervening, simply consuming the scenes that unfold in front of them. At the time of
viewing, these people gathered within the film represent the person watching, a reflection of the film audience. Peering from over the river, courtesy of the framing of the shot, it appears that they are gazing into the jungle to see this discarded body. The scene foreshadows the scenes of death that will be witnessed later by the audience watching the documentary.
The camera cuts back to the abandoned body to portray the grieving relatives cradling it. There is no direct engagement with the camera from any of the people filmed in the sequence, there is little dialogue, other than cries of grief, and the filmmakers do not intervene nor make their presence felt. The partner of the dead boy cries out ‘¿por qué me lo quitaron?’ before she is led away by friends.409
The camera cuts to a man who he is behind bars in a dark room. It is unclear initially as to why he is behind bars, but it becomes clear that this is some form of shop. His place of work is not important to the scene, nor to the documentary as a whole, only his status as an inhabitant of La Sierra. He provides the most immediate answer to the young woman’s question – young men kill each other because they belong to another area. They carry on killing each other in this way, in a battle over territory. The words are spoken as part of an interview, and as such the location of the interview will have been selected by the filmmakers. As the employment of the individual is of no consequence, the dark setting behind bars functions as a visual shorthand for confinement, both physically in terms of the location of those in La Sierra, but also in terms of this man’s opinions regarding the violence committed by and against young men. His tone changes, becomes more reflective, as he repeats a number of times: ‘son muchachos’, before concluding, ‘estamos en las manos de muchachos armados. Eso es todo problema. ¡Estamos en manos de muchachos armados!’ He pauses before adding that life has no worth. His attempts at extended analysis into the causes of such violence have largely failed. Analysis of violence is confined to such simple explanations, as indicated by the imagery in this scene. This is the level of analysis typically afforded to violence in the fourth world space. A person is shown dead, female relatives grieve and an older member of the community comments on the situation. The portrayal of the event then stops, and the filmmakers move on.
The man’s words are then seemingly contradicted by the following montage of images, which aim to encompass the experience of life in this marginal barrio of Medellín. Jaunty vallenato soundtracks accompany the ten different images, of which three show evidence of the presence of violence within the barrio – two gunmen in
uniform on a street corner, a long shot of a gunman purchasing fruit from the local store, and two children walking past a graffitied wall announcing the presence of the Bloque Metro paramilitary group. The montage highlights that life in La Sierra is not as violent as it may first seem. The juxtaposition of these three sequences allows the filmmakers to establish a problem which the documentary then seeks to address: attitudes which consider the fourth world violent inhabitant of Medellín as an object of consumption are as much of a problem as the violence itself.
The montage gives a picture of life in La Sierra before moving to the city centre. The opening shot shows two women dancing outside one home, the camera showing the city down below in the background. A woman hangs out her washing, then the camera cuts to two men sitting on a street corner, in camouflage and holding large guns. Two scruffy dogs run past them. There is a close up of a plastic table, where a man is dealing cards, using bottle tops as chips. There are then shots of older men drinking in a cantina, and two young girls laughing and skipping as an older man turns the skipping rope for them. A bus travels past the camera, with a teenage boy on a bike holding onto the back, being pulled along. A long shot depicts a man selling fruit from a few shelves in a dilapidated building. A very young girl looks through the fruit, while an adolescent male, carrying a gun, purchases fruit from the vendor. Young boys play in a burnt-out bus with smashed windows. Two young girls walk past a concrete wall, decorated with graffiti in the form of the name of the paramilitary operating in La Sierra, ‘Bloque Metro’. The montage then fades to another black background. These shots function as establishing shots, and indicate the documentary’s close association with narrative cinema. In relation to the narrative, the sequence highlights that despite the presence of violence, people take part in normal, everyday activities which take place all around the globe. It seems that young men are always seen to be carrying weapons, but there are many other inhabitants within the barrio, and they are not engaged in violent activity. In this way, the filmmakers illustrate from the outset that the audience should look beyond the guns and spectacular violence of young men.
The final sequence of the opening of the film involves the filmmakers. Up until this point, the film uses the observational mode that was first outlined by Bill Murray.410 The participants are followed and the results are relayed to the audience
through the film. However, in this scene, the opening shot is one of the city centre, the part which is inhabited by the filmmakers, rather than those in La Sierra. The crane shot frames colonial buildings and busy streets, yet the focus of the shot is the
city’s Metro, a clear sign of modernity which is used in other narratives based in the same city.411 As the train exits a station and travels into the foreground of the shot,
the words ‘Downtown Medellín’ fade into the frame.412 This is the central city and the home of the first world inhabitant within Colombia. What follows is a similar montage to that shown of La Sierra, but using fewer shots, and with a distinct absence of men carrying guns. The shot then transfers to a bucket of roses, perhaps an allusion to the highly respected film of Víctor Gaviria, La vendedora de rosas.413 However, the hands rearranging the roses belong to a man, a street vendor. The scene cuts to a couple in a square, leaning against a Botero statue, then to another street vendor selling a model of the pink panther, made of balloons. A taxi then pulls up alongside the camera, and the cameraman gets in, asking to be taken to La Sierra.
In the taxi, the driver claims that you can turn a corner and ‘encuentres muchachos asesinados, taxistas asesinados, familias asesinadas. Cosas no muy agradables, para lo que se cierran los ojos.’ There is a cut, the camera focuses on him changing gear, then panning up to focus on photos of his family. He continues ‘la parte linda - la gente. La gente que te enseña. La gente que te cuenta sus historias.