Archeology of worker’s dignity

In neoliberal times, trade unions and labor rights are increasingly a topic for archaeologists. The film portrays an old trade unionist in Guatemala, delving into shameful working conditions and devastating consequences of the pandemic.

Documentary "Archeology of worker’s dignity"
Are trade unions and workers’ rights an issue for archaeologists? A lost memory of times gone by? Guatemala is one of the country with the most murdered trade unionists and where the labor rights of workers are permanently denied and violated. The film portrays a surviving unionist and delves into the disturbing working conditions in the sugar cane fields, maquilas and informal markets. With the unexpected onset of the pandemic, the consequences for workers are even more devastating.

Colombia – Whose Peace is it?

Uli Stelzner, Germany 2019, 52 min.

Two years after shooting in Colombia during the sign of the peace agreement and the frustrated plebiscite, director Uli Stelzner returns to the country, meeting again people from his first film as well as new dramatic conflicts.
Colombia: after one of the longest civil wars in history with hundreds of thousands of victims, lengthy negotiations and unexpected setbacks until the signing of the peace agreement with the FARC guerrilla, now the difficult implementation begins – with uncertain, even questionable outcome.
Millions of displaced people want to return to their land. Millions of hectares of land are to be given to the farmers, poverty is to be combated. The 300-page peace treaty means a profound transformation for a deeply divided society. A society that has one of the highest disparity of income in the world. Colombia is the third unjustest land on earth. A mammoth task.
Transnational companies – specially European and North American companies – are queuing up to exploit the coveted raw materials of Colombia. There are already conflicts between mining companies and rural communities: from 2016 to mid-2017, more than 130 human rights activists and environmentalists have been murdered.
Colombia is at risk of being worn down politically. The only beneficiary could be the neoliberal world economy, which needs formal peace to do lucrative business. Does the peace process even end in a new low intensity warfare? The author sums up these bitter experiences from decades of film work in Central America, where the wars are ended, but the population today is in many ways worse off than ever before.

Dias y noches entre guerra y paz

Uli Stelzner, Colombia/Germany 2017

A filmmaker travels to several corners of Colombia, searching for those who feel they premiere their own story. Peace is not a secret anymore and the endless night of the war comes to an end. The film steadily compiles the memory of so many deaths as well as the paradox of a war, as vivid in their present as it is absent of the future. The zero hour takes place on the 2nd of October 2016, when the peace process is momentarily stopped and uncertainty takes over the country. Nevertheless, it is that day when a new collective will is born in “almost everyone”: the rejection of dead roads, sharing the risks that peace brings in itself and not giving the power to decide on the circumstances of life itself. Days and Nights between War and Peace is a portrait of crucial moments – impossible to give up, unforgettable – of Colombian History, across time.

[ ESPAÑOL ]

Un cineasta agarra una pequeña cámara y recorre varios rincones de Colombia, buscando las voces y los rostros de la gente que siente que está al principio de la historia. La larga noche de la guerra es empujada hasta su final y la paz ha dejado ser un secreto. La película recoge con fuerza la memoria de tantas muertes y la paradoja de una guerra, tan presente en la vida cotidiana y tan ausente del porvenir. La hora cero llega el 2 de octubre de 2016, cuando el proceso de paz se ve momentáneamente truncado y la incertidumbre se apodera del país. Sin embargo, ese día nace una nueva voluntad colectiva, de "casi todos": no aceptar más el trazo de callejones sin salida, compartir los riesgos de la paz y no dejarle a otros la potestad de decidir sobre las circunstancias de la propia vida. Dias y noches entre guerra y paz retrata momentos cruciales —inolvidables, irrenunciables— de la historia de Colombia, en todas las direcciones del tiempo.