Director Josef Kubota Wladyka brings us a moving film (exec. produced by Spike Lee) from the port of Buenaventura—the most dangerous city in Colombia—where he and his group of young producers worked hard to build a sustainable filmmaking community there by hosting special workshops for the locals. After the intensive course—where students learned basic camera techniques, how to structure storylines, and how to edit in camera on their cell phones—many were hired on as PAs during principal photography. The story follows three men who embark on a journey over the dark murky waters of the Pacific. A set of mysterious coordinates is their guide, a fishing net is their cover, and a narco-torpedo filled with 100kg of cocaine is their cargo. Following estranged brothers as they risk everything for a chance at a better life, “Manos Sucias” takes a close look at life at the bottom of the food chain in the international drug trade. We had the chance to talk to Kubota about what brought him to Colombia in the first place and what he learned about the people from an almost “forgotten” community.
Latin Times: What brought you to Colombia in the first place? You made a trip to South America in 2010, why did that come about?
Josef Kubota Wladyka: Actually, it was an initial backpack trip I did in 2006 or 2007 as a young man in my mid twenties, looking to explore different parts of the world. We went to Ecuador and Colombia, and started going to a lot of hidden places were tourists don’t necessarily go and when we’d go through these towns we were hitching rides with locals, and they’d just start telling us about the situation and who controlled which areas. A lot of times the fishermen have to take jobs on fast boats and narco-submarines, and these towns have been completely forgotten by the government, so as a curious person and filmmaker, I knew there was an amazing film to made there, I just didn’t know at the time what it was.
LT: Now, about the movie; it follows two brothers who are completely different personality and perspective wise. What were you trying to show about their reality?
JKW: Definitely. For me the film was always about lost innocence. We’re showing this bright-eyed kid who starts off being naïve and then ends up completely destroyed after having to kill another kid and losing his innocence. We wanted to show the cycle of what the drug trade does to the young people of Buenaventura. We also knew the film needed to be very simple, and that’s why a lot of it is just two guys in a boat, and they definitely needed to have two different perspectives of what was happening, to create drama and arguments. Initially the script was flipped between the roles of the brothers, but when we started to cast and met Cristian [Avincula] we decided to reverse the roles.
LT: What was working with the community of Buenaventura like? Did you ever feel like they were collaborating with you in a send-for-help way?
JKW: Oh, very much. The film simply wouldn’t exist if they hadn’t agreed with it. There’s no way we could’ve made the film. We shot in places where the police don’t go and you have to have permission and the blessings from so many people to be there, so a huge part of the process was earning the trust of the community. It might’ve been harder for my producers and crew because I’d already been there a couple of times, showed face and said I was going to make a movie there. But once you show up with a crew, it gets way more complicated. Being such a small budget movie, we had no money to pay people, so we had to navigate relationships, always being really upfront about what their subject matter was, and honestly, most of them wanted their story to be told. Many people don’t know about the things that go on in Buenaventura, even in Colombia. And most of the time people don't come through with their promises, so they want everyone to know the situation cause it’s real.
We also made agreements with them to hire people from Buenaventura even though they had no film experience, so each department had to have at least two locals working with them. Plus we had these filmmaking workshops in Barrio Jardin and in the university where we did most of our castings. And it was pretty basic stuff, like how to make a three or four minute film on your camera phone and upload to YouTube. The whole thing was ultimately a beautiful collaboration with the people of Buenaventura.
LT: Is building and establishing filmmaking communities a side project that you’re looking to replicate or grow somewhere else?
JKW: We would definitely love to continue it, and the idea of it was to make it as simple and straight forward as possible to empower them to just keep on making stuff. It’s funny because I’m friends with half of Buenaventura on Facebook and I see them posting little web series and stuff on YouTube and that’s a positive thing.
I think we would of course want to do more but for right now, we [the core team] have been working on this project for several years and are looking to make a living for ourselves. But we would love to go back and do more, although I think the film had a very positive impact on their community. I heard there are two productions set to go film in Buenaventura. Being the ones who opened the door for more people to make films there, is one of the things that’s made me the happiest about this project.
The movie opened in New York on April 3 and in LA on April 10 before heading to Miami, Detroit, San Diego, and other cities to be determined. Take a look at the trailer.
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