Educational Media Reviews Online

Columbia is best known to Americans as a center of the international drug trade. It is also a land wracked by poverty, violence and hopelessness. Civil war in the countryside has forced many who live there to move to the cities, where they are crammed into crime-infested slums. In one such slum, a suburb of Medellin named Santo Domingo, a teacher uses his work in the classroom to stem the tide of despair that is washing over his country. He has given his students a special assignment. They are to keep a diary, in which they will record the history of their lives and their families. Through this exercise he hopes to teach them how to better understand themselves, their loved ones, their country and its problems.

Students interview their parents to gather the information they need for their diaries. One girl asks her Mother why she moved from the countryside to the city, and the haggard looking woman describes a litany of murders and diseases that devastated her family and drove her from her home. A boy describes the difficulty of getting information from his Mother, who doesn’t want to discuss her past, and who’s answers to his questions are often vague or irrational. In spite of this difficulty, the boy finds a certain poetry in his Mother’s words that he is anxious to share with his classmates. For the students and their families, violence and deprivation are a constant fact of life. A group of thugs extorts money from the Father of one girl, while another begs her Mother to allow her violent Father to live with them again. Policemen evict people from houses slated for demolition, leaving them homeless and without hope. A little girl visits the grave of her murdered Father, lead there by her teenage Mother. Family members are often seen quarreling, but moments of tenderness and hope are also shown. Amide all this activity, excerpts from some of the students diaries are heard in voiceover. They punctuate poignant scenes of both despair and love.

In class, the teacher comments on his student’s diaries as they are read aloud, and helps them gain insight from what they’ve written. His message is that they should take responsibility for their own lives, and not blame their parents or society for their plight. He encourages them to respect and listen to others, and he points to this lack of respect as the cause of their country’s problems. He uses examples from their writings to reinforce these ideas. By so doing he allows them to take control of their lives, and gives them hope for a better future.

The picture and sound quality of this film are good. Those portrayed in the film all speak in Spanish, and their interviews and conversations are subtitled. There is no voiceover translation or narration. The lack of narration, and the clarity and focus it can provide, may make this film unsuitable for those unfamiliar with Columbia and its problems. Therefore it might be best used as a supplement to other information on this topic, and not as an introduction. It is suitable for High School, Undergraduate or Graduate students, especially those studying sociology, political science, or latin american affairs or history.

Highly Recommended