Verde Como el Oro

FOTODEMIC: How did this project begin?

Isabella Bernal: Greener than Gold started in September 2020 with an invitation from Catalina Mesa, a Colombian female filmmaker who decided to bring together friends from  different backgrounds in order to create a campaign that could bring awareness to the threat of AngloGold’s Ashanti mining project in the southwest of Antioquia, her home region in Colombia. The idea was that, from our different skills and professions, we could spark a national conversation that warns and at the same time demands the National Authorities to prevent an ecological disaster. My friend Felipe Macía who later became the producer of the documentary, extended Catalina’s invitation to me, and so I ended up being part of an activist campaign where I met the people who helped me to undertand the whole problem and where I got the first clues for developing the story. 

How did you prepare for making this film? What research did you do?

My first source of information came from biologists who taught me about the natural species of the region. I wanted to find a subject that could differentiate this story from the many other stories about mega mining projects that already exist, and one that was especially dangerous to the wildlife. I started researching the animals that are unique to the Tropical Andes and which are also vital for the maintenance of the specific ecosystem that is extremely rich. I found three that are called umbrella species because they are in charge of maintaining the equilibrium of the habitat for the smaller ones. They are the crested Eagle, the couger and the Andean bear. I chose the Andean bear because it is the only large bear that we have in six countries in Latin America and therefore this was not only problematic to Colombia but almost for the whole of South America, and in this way we could extend the debate to a broader audience. This stage of desk research took me around two months before I decided to travel to the region to confirm the theory. I went to Támesis, a small town in the southwest of Antioquia with Felipe, the producer and Andrea Gil who later became the line producer. We stayed there for one month in a local house where we started meeting the people that taught us about the behavior and personality of this animal. These people were the campesinos that had lived with them for many, many years. 

What was it like living with the farmers during the time that you were filming? How did you build their trust?

The relationship with the campesinos started during the first stage of research. We visited and stayed with them a couple of times during the first month before coming with the film crew. We listened to their stories and developed a relationship that was based on a shared purpose, to stop a mine. We all were pushing towards the same direction, and this created a common ground to develop our dialogues. So when we finally arrived to film we were already close to the community. They offered us to stay in their homes and so we ended up building relaitonships with entire families. The locals were very important for the creation of the dialogues that appear in the documentary and those dialogues are the backbone of the story. 

In the film, the bear takes on a kind of mythical presence. What was your awareness of the bear before making the film?

The bear is a mystical animal for many indigenous communities in South America. While developing the script I started personifying the animal and getting to know it through the story of the community. I began seeing it in a horizontal way in regards to humans and I discovered that there are lots of similar characteristics between us. The bear’s behavior resembles ours in many ways, for example the way we eat, the way we relate to each other, their morphology. I wanted to film the bear not from a distance as a scientist that is colonizing a body, but as a subject that has a personality. That’s why I decided to use close ups that could allow the audience to feel its breath and the texture of its fur. 

Stylistically, the film has a very beautiful and observational quality to it. Can you talk about some of the references that influenced the making of it?

I come from a background of traditional journalism. I worked for many years writing chronicles and reportages of topics that were related to breaking news. In the past few years, I’ve been moving away from the traditional ways of telling stories but keeping the interest on stories that are currently problematic. This time I wanted to do a “cold” story that could live in time no matter its “hot” topic.  

The filmography of Lois Patiño deeply influenced the way in which the dialogues are created in this short documentary and also Patricio Guzman’s films has inspired me with how to translate political and social problems into poetic pieces. 

I found the sequence of still shots of landscapes that then transformed into digitally altered projections of the destruction that would take place after the mining company destroyed the land very powerful visual tools. It’s something that Fred Ritchin teaches, this idea of creating imagery for and of the future. At what point in the project did you decide to include this?

The idea of bringing those images came before shooting, from our producer Felipe Macía, who after watching a short film from Laura Huertas Millan, a Colombian filmmaker, said “we could show the destruction before occurring by using the renders with which the mining company is promoting the project”. Our images are based on projections made by AngloGold Ashanti to explain the impact of their mine. That information is available for public access on their website and so we searched for the exact coordinates of the mine, and we filmed in those specific areas. After, in post-production, we designed the digital projections that appear in the film. 

How has the reception of the film been in Colombia? Has there been any response from the mining company? From the government? 

The response from the people in Colombia has been more of what we imagined. Before launching the documentary, we created a bottom-up communication strategy that started on social media, especially on Instagram, where we posted messages explaining the natural richness of this place and at the same time calling attention to the threat of the mining project. This opened an expectation campaign of one week when we built our first audience that was waiting to see the documentary. Then when it was launched it was organically shared by those people. I always say bottom-up because those people were in charge of raising the attention in order for the “traditional-hegemonic media” to put their eyes on this problem. Neither the government or the company has approached us yet. 

How is the morale amongst the farmers and community members? Is there any organizing that is going on against the mining company? 

Tamesis is a anti mining town. During my time there, I never met anyone that could tell me “yes, I want AngloGold Ashanti” here. Nobody. This process of resistance began ten years ago, and today there are many local organizations and leaders that are actively opposing mega mining. We are not saying anything new in the documentary, we are only amplifying those voices that are saying NO to mega mining. 

Has your experience making this film and spending time with the people whose lives, not to mention the land, that are immediately altered by the destructive impact of the mining change your perception of the environmental crises?

I think the awareness of the current environmental crises brought Felipe and me together into this project. What appeared was a change in our perception about how mining could divert the future of a place on multiple levels: socially, economically, environmentally. After doing the reserach we could analyze from a broader and more complex perspective the multiple consequences of this business. 

In the scene in which the farmers are having a discussion about the implications of the mines, one of the farmers says: “When you buy a camera, you’re buying a bit of that.” It’s a self-reflexive moment in relation to the film itself, and makes us consider how deeply entwined our daily lives are with the mining that this film alludes to. One of the farmers suggests that “We’re going to have to stop using those things then.” What do you think we can do as individuals to challenge the destruction that is commited by multinational mining companies? 

This is a great question, because it is a question that could be made to the audience as well. I think that at this point in history it is very hard to stop the way we are driving the world only with individual and isolated actions. They can be the spark of a turning point, but it needs the force of the collective in order to change the path. In this case, to stop a mine. I believe in the power of collectivity and how persuasive it can be if it has a strong basis. Today, we need to pursue social systems and institutions that can let people turn those indivdual actions into collective wills without any type of threat.  We can change  our“micro cosmos” with our thoughts and actions, but we need them to be sheltered by systems that protect the wills of the majority.