Rio Arriba [Upriver]
Film Essay
Description
“Rio Arriba [Upriver]” is cinematic cartography of the Colombian Amazon region where indigenous resistance, trees, soils, clouds, light, and shadow inter-exist. The two-channel film essay follows a journey upstream the Putumayo River. Departing from the Siona territory in the lower Amazon at 300 meters above sea level (M.A.S.L) to the Quillacinga territory in the highlands of the Colombian Andes at 3000 M.A.S.L., “Rio Arriba [Upriver]” takes the viewer along a meandering river that cuts across territories in dispute. As part of this riverside journey, different types of clouds are discussed: some are formed by mist, some by fire, and others by chemical spraying. Here overlapping sovereignties emerge and extractive industries clash with human and nonhuman communities resisting violence across this vertical axis of power and occupation. “Rio Arriba [Upriver]” juxtaposes natural and toxic clouds, local and political weathers, rights and interests, having the living body of the river as a starting point.