Though five out of 89 feature films at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival were produced in Latin America, Manos sucias (Dirty Hands) set in Colombia won Best New Narrative Director for Josef Wladyka. In the film, Jacobo, a desperate fisherman and Delio, a naive kid, embark on a journey trafficking millions of dollars of cocaine up the Pacific coast of Colombia towing a submerged torpedo in the wake of their fishing boat. While Jacobo is a seasoned trafficker, young Delio is unprepared for the grim reality.
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| Manos sucias director Josef Wladyka. |
In my own
disarming and non-confrontational manner, I couldn’t resist asking the director, “What’s a Polish-Japanese guy from Brooklyn doing directing and
co-writing a film in Colombia?” The first few opening seconds of this brilliant film shine
the spotlight on black Colombians in this Pacific port in the western region.
What many fail to realize is that 30% of the country is comprised of
Afro-Colombians. And when conducting my due diligence researching this story,
of course I had to reach out to a native Colombian friend from Barranquilla and
ask to describe Buenaventura. Her immediate response was, “A tragedy as to
what is happening there.” In March of this year, the Economist named the town the most violent
in all of Colombia.
Yet when
the Tribeca Film Festival bestowed their award on this film they affirmed, “We
have chosen a filmmaker whose journey should truly be an (is an) example to all
of us about the commitment to the process of researching and developing a film.
Not only did this director spend several years immersed in a marginalized
community in order to tell the story in the most truthful way possible, he
impacted and contributed to that community. We felt this film was an eye- and
mind-opener, that transported us to a different place, stimulating our
thinking, allowing us to meditate on the relationship between violence and
circumstance.” I couldn’t agree more as I loved this film from beginning to end
and here was my interview with Josef that tied the knot.
In this being a story
mostly about blacks, was it the story or locale?
It arose from the
reality of all the towns in that region where they are black. Once I cast the
film, I realized that there is a lot of social exclusion and racism in this
region. In the casting process I heard their stories. I also discovered this
beautiful Afro-Colombian culture in casting real people from the region.
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| Jarlin Javier Martínez and Cristián James Abvincula in a scene from Manos sucias. |
How did the black
community receive you or what strategy did you implement to be accepted?
Our film was set in
Buenaventura and dealt with narco-trafficking – a town under siege. We came in
with no assumptions and open to hearing their story and how narco-trafficking
played a role in their lives by shining light on this story. We were always
honest and upfront about what the story was about. Buenaventura is a place where
a lot of people are promised, but people don’t deliver. So when they saw this
guy who was Polish-Japanese from the U.S. that was interested in their story
they paused. Plus, when I arrived with a co-writer and Elena, a producer, they
saw it was serious.
How did you lure Spike
Lee to be an Executive Producer and receive a grant?
I went to the NYU Film
Graduate program and he taught in my third year. I was already
traveling for several years to Colombia developing this story and I had a
script. He always said he loved the narrative of the film. He always did what
he could to support this project by lending his name, writing letters of
support, and through the school provided a Spike Lee Production grant. After
they had shot it and we were editing it, he liked it very much and decided to
come on board.
Tell me about the
casting and your actors.
The principal actors are
from Buenaventura. Most of them were theater students. They do plays traveling
around Colombia performing from an Afro-Colombian perspective. It was a teacher
from the school who had recommended his students. I wanted to cast them all.
These weren’t non-actors, but none of them had acted on camera. The rehearsal
was all about preparing them to act for film. I can’t express how much talent
exists in Buevanventura among actors, rappers, etc.
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| A scene from Manos sucias |
How do you respond to
Colombians who say they are sick and tired of their country constantly being
depicted as infested mainly with narco-traffickers, when they feel there are so
many other stories to tell?
Our film is about a
specific place that has been historically excluded by the government of
Colombia. It is more than drug trafficking. It’s about two brothers. The
torpedo that they pull with their motorboat is a metaphor for all the problems
going on in that area. We never show drugs in the film. We want to show the
reality that they face. Also, as U.S. filmmakers we sacrificed and put ourselves
under tremendous risk, but the locals bought into the mission. This is a part
of Colombia that a lot of Colombians don’t want to see. In The 54th Cartagena Film Festival, native Colombians had much more of an emotional
reaction than we experienced at the Tribeca Film Festival. People cried in
Colombia. There’s always positive stories to tell in Colombia. I lived in Cali
and Bogotá, but our particular film was about this place and what the residents
undergo.
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| Manos sucias co-writer/director of photography Alan Blanco, actor Cristián James Abvincula, executive producer Spike Lee, director/co-writer Josef Wladyka. Courtesy of Getty Images. |
As a veteran filmmaker,
what is the biggest advice you have for a narrative film director?
First of all, I don’t
consider myself a veteran. I’m a first-time filmmaker and there’s always a lot
to learn. In pre-production when casting actors, give yourself a lot of time
and spend quality time with them. Don’t cut corners. Once pre-production
starts, you are in over your head if you have not focused on this part of the
production.
Does your film translate
to a U.S. audience?
Yes, I believe so. The
reaction at Tribeca has been so incredible. It’s about survival and brotherhood– these are universal themes. We wanted it to be entertaining and accessible.
There were parts where you laughed and found it suspenseful– while not being
too esoteric– and more importantly, [there were parts that are there to] leave you thinking. We could have made
a documentary, but we chose a narrative.
For more information about Manos sucias, click here.
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Louis Perego Moreno (Tío Louie) is an interactive content producer and educator who for 32 years has owned Skyline Features, a bilingual multimedia and educational production company developing documentaries, television programming and advertising commercials featuring Latinos, blacks, women, urban youth and LGBT people. He has trained 1,500 Latino and African American youth over 10 years to produce 70 documentary shorts. For documentary features he was the producer and director of Latina Confessions (2010) and co-producer of American Dreams Deferred (2013) on PBS.
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