Juliana Zuluaga

Colombia, 1990’s. A single mother attempts to keep her family together after her son is drafted by the army and assigned to the front in the country’s most dangerous war zone. To do this, she embarks on a journey against time in a society ruled by men, corruption and violence.

Worlds Burning Amid the Shadows is a generational embrace born from the encounter between an adult woman and a group of young people. This journey through darkness, bodies and lights, proposes a playful experience, from the formal and the narrative, in which the symbolic plane becomes a battlefield and the prevailing need for freedom can be satiated from minimal acts such as dancing, smoking or makeup.

In the dense Colombian jungle, eras jump, genders blur and fluids flow freely. The rubber trees, tapped for their viscous sap, take on another connotation of kink while a 15th century European Missionary tries to tame what is inherently savage. In the thicket of trees, all things are wild, animalistic and queer.

A misty jungle opens the confines of time and space to converge the times of a colonial era, the echoes of an apocalyptic beast and the open-air prayers of a transanimal ritual. An incantation film, composed of three invocations thirsty for rage and faith in the world.

Authorities have prohibited access to a forest on the outskirts of the city. Strange vegetation has infested the area, and those who have been questioned report sightings of rare species, human-sized birds, or figures that appear and disappear. Despite the restrictions, several people decide to visit the place. Once there, they coexist and play without fear of the warnings. Little by little, reality begins to distort, blending with their memories, dreams, and fantasies.

Audiovisual Communicator of the Colombian Polytechnic Jaime Isaza Cadavid. Scriptwriter and director of several audiovisual projects, among which the documentary Barrio Cine and the fiction short films Luzy, The birds fly two, the three winners of the Creation Scholarships of the Mayor's Office of Medellín, stand out. He has produced three short films and has also edited four documentary short films. He has participated in several directing workshops with filmmakers such as Abbas Kiarostami, José Luis Guerín, Luis Ospina, Oscar Campo, Rubén Mendoza, Jacques Toulemonde and Franco Lolli. He currently directs the narrative, documentary and audiovisual montage subject of the Faculty of Audiovisual Communication of the Politecnico Colombiano Jaime Isaza Cadavid.