200 years after Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across Colombia, The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces The Liberator’s journey across the high-altitude marshlands while searching for glimpses of his ghost, still present in this historically contested territory. Reflecting on the construction of oral history and its relation to the land, The Soldier’s Lagoon traverses the páramo, a living and elusive archive, navigating through the dense fog suspended between Simon Bolivar’s past and Colombia’s present. The Soldier’s Lagoon is the second film in a three-part series exploring the intersection of oral narratives, political outcomes, and the territories marked by Simón Bolívar’s passage during the Liberation Campaign of Colombia in 1819. The first completed part is called Bicentenario (2021).
Content warning: violence
Pablo Alvarez-Mesa‘s films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, MoMA Doc Fortnight, Visions du Réel, and RIDM. His most recent film, Bicentenario, explores Simón Bolívar’s battles of Independence and was played at the 2021 Berlinale, MoMA Doc Fortnight, and Viennale, among other festivals. It earned a Jury Mention at Festival Punto de Vista in the Main Competition. Pablo is also a cinematographer and editor and is currently working with Sofia Bohdanowicz on her new feature film Opus 28. Pablo is now in post production of his upcoming film The Soldier's Lagoon, which was recently awarded The Docs in Orbit Invitation Award at the Docs in Progress showcase at Cannes. Pablo's interest in documentary lies in the relationship between facts and fiction, between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films touch on, in one way or another, issues of displacement, history, and collective memory.
