Karen Lamassonne

Based on the only four surviving shots of the first Colombian silent film, MARÍA (1921), by directors Máximo Calvo (Colombia) and Alfredo del Diestro (Spain), IN SEARCH OF ‘MARIA’ combines historical research, interviews, and scenic reconstruction to rescue the memory of a lost film.

Roberto Hurtado suffers from a rare disease that requires massive transfusions of blood from children or adolescents. His son blackmails three employees to get blood for him and they resort to unscrupulous methods to obtain it.

August 6, 1956 during the military dictatorship of Rojas Pinilla. A military convoy loaded with dynamite explodes in the center of Cali, destroying a good part of the traditional buildings of the city and exposing the roots of some houses that for years had kept the secret stories of their inhabitants.

A naked body curls up with a broken TV.

In an old and mysterious tropical mansion cohabit the supposed owner, a friar, a convalescent pilot, the Haitian servant, the mercenary guardian and the Machiche, a mature and dominant female. A young model arrives there to unleash all kinds of passions.

Colombia receives the indemnity for Panama and accepts foreign credit to undertake development works, which increases the number of workers, although with poor wages and terrible working conditions. María Cano, a political activist, began her fight for the conditions of salaried workers and for the fundamental rights of the population.

This two-part documentary series made for regional television captures a crucial moment in Cali and Ospina's relationship with its city: a crossroads where the break with the city of youth becomes inevitable and painful. The first part, Cali plane X plane, is a counterpoint of image and sound on the destruction of architectural heritage. The second, Goodbye to Cali / Ah, Goddess Kali !, brings together the opposing testimonies of local artists who have dealt with the theme of the city and the devastators who have insisted on destroying it.