History’s B-sides
History’s B-Sides (Lado B de la Historia) explores past events whose effects continue to resonate, in one way or another, in the present. Each chapter seeks to trigger the memories which lie dormant in objects, places, people, plants, songs and grandparents’ stories…
Documentary series (musical)
12 episodes x 30’
On air in Señal Colombia during 2008
Monday 8:30pm, Saturday 5:00pm
Synopsis
Because history is more than battles and independence heroes, more than the elections and new constitutions which appear every so often. History’s B-Sides explores past events whose effects continue to resonate, in one way or another, in the present. Each chapter seeks to trigger the memories which lie dormant in objects, places, people, plants, songs and grandparents’ stories. With music, imagination and strict historical grounding, episodes in Colombian history such as the 1928 Banana Workers’ Strike, the nineteenth-century rubber extraction in the Amazon, the arrival of television to the country, and indigenous peoples’ struggle for greater political and cultural autonomy are portrayed to show that history isn’t stuck in the past but is rather a living process that gives shape and meaning to our own times.
Approach
The series uses historical reenactments, interviews, animation, journeys and popular songs to explore how the present bears the stamp of the past. To illustrate the intimate connections between different periods, archive images are juxtaposed with recent shots. The programs are presented by well-known Colombian musicians (Andrea Echeverri, Ana Veydo, Goyo and Tostao) who act as charismatic guides.
Project developed by 4direcciones, and The National Museum of Colombia.
Volume 1. SONG OF THE CHIEF (Cacique sonoro)
¿What do a 16th century indigenous chief, an unsolved murder in Sesquilé and a ceremonial staff of guayacán wood conserved in the National Museum of Colombia have to do with one another? Through word and song, Andrea Echeverri and the Campo Sonoro group explain how the history of Colombia forms a complex weave and a succession of surprising encounters. In this chapter we tell the story of the Mestizo Chief of Turmequé, Don Diego de Torres, and his present relationship with a Muisca indigenous community located in Sesquilé, Cundinamarca. We look at words like “Indian”, “Mestizo” and “Cacique” and we see how their meaning is important for the recovery of memories of the conquest of the high plains region of Cundinamarca and Boyacá.
Volume 2. THE MUISCA WHIRLWIND (Torbellino Muisca)
Starting from our national sport, Tejo (a stone-hurling game), we go further into the story of the Mestizo chief of Turmequé. Andrea Echeverri and the Campo Sonoro group accompany us on our journey to the past with a whirlwind, a traditional song from the high plains of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The Muisca children of Sesquilé show us their community, their temples and their ceremonies. They reveal secrets about the tobacco plant and we watch how a number of youngsters are trying to reawaken remembrances of a people whom we thought had disappeared.
Volume 3. SON PRIETO (Black Music)
For centuries, the history of the Afro-Colombian people was ignored and in this chapter we find out the reasons for it. Goyo and Tostao of the Chocquibtown group tell us how the history of the people who reached these lands from Africa in a caravel one day became the subject of fantasies, stereotypes and, frequently, lies. Where do we find the secrets of this unwritten history?: in the songs of an oarsman on the river Atrato, hidden messages written in braids and the verses of the 19th century Black poet, Candelario Obeso. As a man from Quibdo known as “the Witch” (El Brujo) explains: “my grandfather told me, who heard it from his grandfather, who heard it from his grandmother, who heard it from her grandfather”.
Volume 4. SONG OF THE JOURNEY (Son del viaje)
Travels are an important part of the African peoples who arrived in America, leaving their homelands far behind. Their cultures reborn in Colombia, these Black inhabitants of Colombian coasts and islands have gone through many migrations over the centuries. In this chapter we hear songs about journeys: the one which takes us far from home and the other one which everyone must undertake: to the beyond. One woman sings an alabao (song of praise) and another an arrullo (lullaby). Songs and stories, now found in the cities, which conserve echoes and memories of the past and of the lands they were uprooted from. How do you reconstruct an identity and culture associated with a place you had to abandon ?
Volume 5. OH, MY LAND! (Ay mi tierra!)
¿What is a territory for us? How do we define it? What is our relationship to it? In the music of the Llanos or Eastern Prairies, songs which spring from a cattle-rearing economy describe the close relationship between man and his land. With the help of the Grupo Cimarrón and its lead singer Ana Veydó, we tell stories about lands and settlers. In the jungles and prairies of Colombia, the heritage over the fight for land which began 500 years ago is still alive and important. One of the harshest paradoxes of Colombia is that the regions richest in natural resources are the places with the strongest social conflicts and the greatest poverty.
Volume 6. CRY OF THE LAND (Grito de tierra)
In this chapter we explore different kinds of colonization, including that associated with an extractive economy, which has been a feature of our history, since the Colombian state has historically favored the interests of foreign trade over those of the population which lives in the jungles and prairies of the country. The Red Book of the Putumayo, written in the early 20th century, denounced the atrocities committed by the Casa Arana rubber-trading firm during the short-lived rubber boom and caused an enormous scandal in Europe in the 1920´s. We travel to the Putumayo region of Colombia, see how it is today and hear, in the voice of the Nasa indigenous community, stories about colonizers and colonization which reveal that many more chapters could be added to that book.
Volume 7. SONG OF THE MOON (Canción de Luna)
The story begins with a little-known object from the collections of the National Museum, one which leads us to explore the lives of two women from 17th century Colombia whose lives could not have been more different. One led such an impeccable life that her husband wrote a book in praise of her and the other was accused of being a witch because of her knowledge of herbal medicine. The heritage of these two ways of life still exists nowadays and we see that many of the stereotypes about how a woman should behave that existed 3 centuries ago are still in force. These stories are narrated by the songs of María Mulata, accompanied by drums and other traditional instruments.
Volume 8. SONG OF THE FAMILY (La Sonora Parentela)
“In the days of work and the nights of wakefulness, so long as there is a woman, a family will exist”. These words, sung by María Mulata, describe the subject of this chapter. Although it is said that the family is the foundation of society and it has been thought , for centuries, that the Colombian family is governed by strict Catholic values, we have only to look at any home to understand that individual decisions and social changes have left us with an ever greater diversity of family values. This chapter explores how different ideas of the family have evolved in the course of Colombian history and gives a chance to meet a network of women from the Chocó region, women who are family heads and give us a different perspective on what this institution, the basis of society, means today.
‹‹ see videos ››
Volume 9. THE COMMON PEOPLE IN SONG (Pueblo Entonado)
A famous strike by workers in a banana plantation, a 1928 political cartoon by Ricardo Rendón, a piece of graffiti and a fish stew do not seem to have anything in common. But they are all related to the social movements which have changed our society. The songs of a vallenato group from Barrancabermeja tell us stories associated with words which we hear in the news every day, like strikes, protests and marches. Who are the common people of Colombia, the ones who have been called plebeians or the rabble? How has the fear that they will rise up shaped our society? Their power has played a crucial role in many episodes in Colombian history, going right back to day of our Independence.
Volume 10. THE PEOPLE HAVE A PARTY (Parrandón de Pueblo)
Using the language of hip-hop and the street, a group of youngsters from Barrancabermeja link their modern life with that of a personage who lived and campaigned in the first half of the 20th century: Raúl Eduardo Mahecha. His struggle is a living inspiration for all current social movements. We look back at the origins of what is known as the working class and the popular movements that changed the political structure of Colombia.
Volume 11. COLOMBIA ON THE AIR (La Onda Nacional)
¿What lies behind the image of Colombia which has been created by the communications media? ¿What was the country like before the advent of television, when people got together around an apparatus which only emitted a voice? From the Teatro Teusaquillo in Bogotá, the D.J., Fresh, mixes the voices of different figures from the golden age of Colombian radio. Bernardo Hoyos, William and Karen Vinasco, Andrés Nieto and Antonio Casale tell us stories which reveal how the media only show part of the reality of the country. From the very beginning, with the earliest radio programs and films, a distorted version of what Colombians are like was created, full of prejudices and half-truths.
Volume 12. THE SCRATCHED SIDE OF THE RECORD (El Lado Rayado)
In the 1950´s, when President Rojas Pinilla was bringing the T.V. to Colombia, the famous duo of singers, Los Tolimenses, were awarded the “Nemqueteba” prize, whose symbol (like the Oscar) was a little figurine which transmitted the image of a rural country with a peasant population, a still innocent one perhaps for those ran the media. The purpose of television was to be educational and cultural. What relation does current TV have with those aims? In the opinion of many, commercial TV is in a poor way nowadays, suffering from a limited choice of programs, worn-out formats and a minimal representation of the country´s regions. This chapter deals with the history of Colombian television, showing, among other things, soap operas from the 1980´s and an interview with those who work in a present-day community t.v. channel in Bogotá.