Guerrilla Girl

Guerrilla Girl: Nice cinema photography, terrible at honesty. Ask anyone who has lived in a jungle for any length of time (including temperate rainforests) about the bugs, dirt, dampness and... did I mention bugs and the response will not include anything depicted in this movie. A moth here, a moth there.. No stinging itchy biting insects or ants. The movie overtly romanticizes FARC. Soldiers dancing with each other by lantern light. No murders, no kidnappings, no cocaine, no extortion. Just a pretty young woman in the bush with a bunch of other young people. The leader comes across more as a group counselor than a military leader. This movie is FARC propaganda, pure and simple.

I couldn't avoid to feel so frustrated about the careless way this filmmaker portraits the FARC. How come someone could be this irresponsible to make a documentary presenting facts that are so far from being true. Doesn't he know about the kidnapping, massacres and drug traffic crimes the FARC is responsible for? I just hope that people who aren't aware of Colombian reality use their judgment, common sense and accurate information to realize how much pain the FARC has given to innocent people in Colombia. FARC has world given the status of terrorist by their numerous cruel acts such as killing and kidnapping, the also are responsible for anti persona mines which have left children, women and elderly persons handicapped. There will be a rally on February 4th in Colombia telling the FARC that we Colombians are tired of them. The Slogan is: No more Kidnapping, No more lies, No more FARC. If this is the slogan of an entire nation this probably means to people that have common sense that the FARC members are not the peaceful heroes this filmmaker wants to portrait in this very poor documentary.

I liked this film. It felt "true" to me. I like it when documentaries just document. Often in documentaries it feels as if the creators are determined about how the film is going to be and what the conclusions are going to be, before they start making it (obvious example is Michael Moore).

In this film it felt like the creators just thought "Let us see what life is like for a girl entering the FARC" without having a specific idea of what it is like. And then they just show what they see. This is what we saw, no more, no less.

Apart from that, I really enjoyed the form. No voice overs. Fly-on-the-wall camera. Down tempo moments with beautiful visual pictures. Why not 10? I don't know, it just lacks the final touch, it didn't give me goosebumps :)

Having a Colombian background I totally hated that movie, not just because it lies about the real conflict but, because of personal reasons, my family had to scape from Colombia after being threaten of kidnapping by this organization and in the movie they look like heroes.

Bombings, murder, mortar attacks, narcotrafficking, kidnapping, extortion, hijacking, as well as guerrilla and conventional military action against Colombian political, military, and economic targets. This horrible side is never shown in the movie but, it is a childish idealization of the conflict from the eyes of people that has never seen what they are talking about. I have personally met people kidnapped by the FARC and that is no fun at all! If you don't care about the background and you just want to see the movie, don't even bother! Use your money to see something more entertaining.

This documentary is significant for a number of reasons.

First, on a personal level, it brought back strong memories for me of the rain forests of New Guinea, where I spent six years in colonial administration in the 1960s. The cinematography is excellent; the sounds of the jungle are vibrant, even the drumming rain on the canvas.

Second, as a political documentary about FARC, it comes across more as a 'come on' video for other prospective and starry-eyed recruits to the cause. That's not the ideal function of true documentary practice. If you're gonna make a recruiting video, don't dress it up as fact, because this film is staged, from the first frame to the last (a montage of real battles of FARC guerrillas at war with paramilitaries). On that basis, however, it's no better and no worse, than any other video for, say, the US Army, the Tamil Tigers, ETA or any other military force.

Third, from a moral and philosophical point of view, the film is totally bankrupt, if not incoherent. Nowhere in the narrative is there any mention of what the future holds, in concrete terms, for the people of Colombia when FARC finally wins the war. Well, that begs the question, right? Will FARC ever win this grinding conflict that's gone on for decades? Who's to say, who's to know? Never mind, just carry on the fight, okay, and don't ask questions...just carry out the orders. Aaaah, but that sort of line is currently – in this decisive year 2007 -- being delivered to the surging grunts in Baghdad, no?

I'm not against political, social and economic justice; quite to the contrary. However, it's never going to be achieved by an unending civil war; to continue in that direction means that the country is ultimately destroyed in order to save it. And that's like smoking forty cigarettes every day while you're dying of terminal lung cancer...

And a film such as this, that actively promotes the continuation of civil hostilities within the country is to be deplored, regardless of the sincerity, comradeship and even love displayed by the recruits.

By all means see this film. The Colombian paramilitary forces and the CIA have probably seen it also. So, you may as well. Why not?