Amid the historic upheaval in Colombia, Senator Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla leader, was the early front-runner for president in 2022. With unprecedented access to Colombia’s most charismatic and polarizing politician, the film follows the highs and lows of the Colombian progressive movement and Petro’s historic campaign for president through Election Day.
Having previously filmed a documentary short with Gustavo Petro in the mid-aughts (“Diez Años / Ten Years”) the filmmakers were uniquely positioned to tell his story on the world stage. With “Petro,” they have woven unseen archival footage (including some of their own from 2007) with vérité footage from over a year spent following Petro on the campaign trail in 2021 / 2022. The result is a film that strives to convey the historical importance of Petro’s campaign and last year’s presidential election and that we hope resonates with audiences who may see in “Petro” a mirror of some of the universal challenges of our time: political polarization, systemic inequality, corruption – but also the potential for grassroots organizing and collective action to face those same challenges head-on.
In the case of Gustavo Petro, not only has he been able to channel the hopes and dreams of millions of disillusioned and disenfranchised Colombians through the power of his oratory, but he aims to take the 2016 peace process a step further by forging what he calls “total peace” in Colombia, negotiating with the remaining armed groups in the country to bring an end to the civil armed conflict once and for all. Colombian citizens who might never have been associated with one another due to ideological differences during the campaign came to recognize the potency of what Petro is proposing: to repair the broken social contract and give the Colombian people a chance to unify in the interest of collective self-preservation and mutual prosperity.
Directed by critically acclaimed filmmaker Sean Mattison, the film premieres on Saturday, January 20th at 10 am MST and receives a second screening on Tuesday, January 23rd at 5 pm MST
Source/images provided by Cinematic Red
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