1) Rent the film on Vimeo (Running time 1 hour 23 mins)
We would suggest starting the film at 1 PM (EST) / 6 PM (UK) to finish in time for the Q&A.
2) Join for the live Q&A: 3 PM (EST) / 8 PM (UK)
RSVP for the Q&A with Victoria Solano (Director) and Paula Vaccaro (Producer).
Sumercé follows veteran activist Don Eduardo, rising political leader César Pachón and agricultural educator Rosita as they fight their government’s decision to allow companies to carve up the campesinos birthright in rural Colombia and the country's access to fresh water.
JOIN US 28TH APRIL:
1) Rent the film on Vimeo (Running time 1 hour 23 mins)
We would suggest starting the film at 1 PM (EST) / 6 PM (UK) to finish in time for the Q&A.
2) Join for the live Q&A: 3 PM (EST) / 8 PM (UK)
RSVP for the Q&A with Victoria Solano (Director) and Paula Vaccaro (Producer).
Victoria Solano
Born in Bogotá, Colombia, Victoria Solano is an award winning filmmaker who has lived in Argentina since 2010. She studied journalism at the University of San An- dres and filmmaking at Politecnico Gran Colombiano. Her first documentary, 9.70, was a mid-length film selected for GoodPitch Argentina, the first event of its type in the region, and has been watched by over 2M people around the world. After the release, Victoria received the Simon Bolivar, one of Colombia’s most coveted jour- nalism awards. Previously she had worked as a director for various TV channels including Telesur, RCN and Canal Capital. She is the co-founder of Clementina Films, a production company based in Colombia where she is currently developing several projects including Antequera, a film about the assassinated leader of the UP party in Colombia and The Presidents who didn’t happen, a docudrama series on the various Colombian presidents who weren’t able to govern the country. Sumercé, currently in post-production, is her first long feature documentary co-pro- duced by Pinball London (UK) and Clementina Films (Colombia) with support from Bertha Foundation, IDFA and ProImagenes.
Ana María Suárez Franco
She holds degrees in law and public policies from Colombia and LL.M. and PhD from Germany. She is the Accountability Coordinator and Permanent Representative in Geneva of FIAN International. She participated in the processes on the Maastricht Principles on Extraterritorial Obligations of States, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants, and the TNC and OBEs Treaty. She has worked closely with diverse communities affected violation of the right to food and nutrition in diverse regions and is a visitant lecturer at various universities. She has published extensively in the area of economic, social and cultural rights.
Agustina Covián
Agustina Covián is a Spanish creative producer who has lived and worked in the US, France and Spain for over two decades. A 1997 Berklee graduate, she studied Film Scoring after obtaining a Bachelor's degree in Film and Media from Boston University in 1992. She began her professional career in Los Angeles, followed by Paris working for renowned directors such as Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Oliver Stone. In 2003 she opened her own production company in Spain focusing on art and music documentaries, short films, music videos and corporate commu- nications. She then moved on to the music industry where she worked for Live Na- tion producing a wide range of concerts of large scale including Madonna, Elton John, AC/DC, Queen, and Rock in Rio, among many others. In 2011, she joined the Berklee Music Institute in Boston to create and launch the Mediterranean Music Institute in Spain where she is in charge of producing events, concerts, films and albums. She has worked alongside artistic director, music producer and composer Javier Limón. In 2018 she joined Pinball London’s team to lead the company’s new office in Con- tinental Europe based in Madrid, Spain.
Marco Cartolano
Marco Cartolano is an Argentine filmmaker who has also lived in Colombia. He is the co-founder of Clementina Films, a production company focused on issue-driven documentaries based in Bogotá. After co-producing 9.70, he joined the team of Sumercé as a producer and line producer. He is currently studying documentary cinema at the University of San Martin after a stint at the University of Buenos Aires studying Literature. Within Clementine Films, he is currently developing the long feature documentary Antequera and the series The Presidents who didn’t happen, also with Victoria Solano as the director as well as various other projects yet to be announced.
Paula Vaccaro
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Paula Vaccaro is an award winning British-Italian executive producer, creative producer and screenwriter based in the United King- dom since 2000. With more than two decades of experience, she has worked in TV, radio, newspapers, magazines and cinema both in Spanish and English speak- ing territories. She has worked for various independent production companies and TV channels, including the BBC until 2009 when she founded Pinball London, a production company specialising in films with an author stamp for international au- diences such as On the Milky Road (Venice Film Festival 2016), directed by Emir Kusturica and starring Monica Bellucci. In addition to Kusturica, with whom she had already worked producing the documentary Maradona (Cannes, 2008) and in the collective film Words with Gods (Venice 2014), her work stands out in various ca- pacities alongside other renowned filmmakers such as Sally Potter, Sara Driver, Jim Jarmusch, Guillermo Arriaga, Amos Gitai, Bahman Ghobadi, Warwick Thorn- ton, Mira Nair, Hideo Nakata, Álex de la Iglesia, Héctor Babenco, and a solid new generation of filmmakers including Aaron Brookner (Uncle Howard, Sundance 2016, Burroughs NYFF 2014), Edoardo de Angelis (Indivisibili, Mozzarella Stories), and Victoria Solano (9.70, Sumercé). In the past decade she has worked advising and training on pitching, production matters, outreach, audience engagement and festival strategy for over 100 films. She has been a mentor, speaker and a workshop facilitator at over a dozen in- ternational film festivals and events including Thessaloniki, GoodPitch, DocMontev- ideo, DocsSP, Sheffield DocFest, Jilhava film festival and Docs Buenos Aires, Tri- este FF. She was an Emmy Juror between 2009 and 2014, and Official Jury at San Sebastian Film festival in 2017, a Jury at Focal Awards for Archive excellency since 2010 and a professor at Kingston University 2015-2020.
Connecting with #StayHomeWatchTogether:
Why watch Sumercé now?
Organizing and raising our collective voices for justice has taken on a different tenor during our current global pandemic. Without the ability to physically gather together, we look to stories that remind us of how empowering our human relationships are for movements to succeed. Witnessing the power of the people in Sumercé reminds each of us that:
➔ Nature needs guardians, water can't be privatized, and natural resources are finite
➔ The power of collective organizing for political reform is more critical than ever
➔ The need for democractic institutions to protect the environment can not wane
➔ The beauty and love to restore, protect, and sustain our diverse ecosystems must be a global priority
Take Action Now
Support Sumercé and their impact campaign that has been dramatically affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Go to http://www.facebook.com/SumerceFilm/ to learn more.
Share the film http://vimeo.com/ondemand/sumerce
Stop the privatization of the paramos which hold a large percentage of the fresh water of the world, and the majority of the fresh water of Colombia.
Support the farmers who are being evicted of their lands by the government in order to make the area a "natural reserve", the first step before the authorities turn the land around and sell/rent to multinational mining companies.
Request international support and exert pressure on the Colombian government to support farmers on their activities including the protection of water and land.
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