The Simple as a Form of Resistance
Synopsis
In 2013, a group of young filmmakers undertook a journey to the municipality of Guateque, in Boyacá, with the goal of capturing the dreams and fantasies of students at a provincial school. Eleven years later, in 2024, the recovered archive material provides us with a revealing perspective on the evolution of society and the contrasts between urban and rural life.
Through intimate interviews, this documentary immerses the viewer in the world of young school students, who shared their aspirations and visions of happiness at a moment when digital technologies were just beginning to permeate their daily lives.
In the midst of this context, emerges the story of Michael, a boy who lives in the countryside without amenities like electricity or a shower. Despite the limitations, Michael’s happiness shines contagiously. His simple way of life, removed from technological distractions, invites us to question our own notions of happiness and to value the simple.
«Imaginarios» is a testament to the importance of looking backward and learning from the past to question our own aspirations and priorities. Michael’s story reminds us that true happiness does not only depend on material possessions, but on how we understand and inhabit the world.
Director’s Note
I didn’t make this documentary in 2013 and I didn’t make it in 2024. I made it twice, with eleven years of distance between one and the other, and both times it was a different film.
We shot the first version with a group of friends, film students, in Guateque, my town in Boyacá, when we were still young enough to believe we could go to the Colombian provinces and ask children about happiness without the question sounding pretentious or idiotic.
At the center of it all was Michael. A boy who lived without almost anything that my friends and I considered indispensable, and yet he seemed more calm, more whole, more present than any of us. There’s no lesson there, or at least I wasn’t able to extract one at the time. What there was, was discomfort, the suspicion that Michael knew something that we had forgotten or never learned, and that no camera would be able to fully translate.
I returned to the material eleven years later, already living in Barcelona, already with another life on top of me, and I realized that the film had aged in a curious way. The film doesn’t answer. It only holds the gaze a bit longer than we’re used to, and waits.
Technical Details
Direction & Screenplay: Sebastián C. Santisteban
Year: 2014 · Duration: 28 minutes
Format: Documentary · Country: Colombia
IMDb Rating: 9.8/10
Festival Selections
Official Selection: Cinema Palooza · Official Selection: Latino & Native American Film Festival · Official Selection: Indie Doc Pro