The new Luc Besson film Colombiana made its US debut this weekend, amid a certain amount of well-deserved controversy.
The Non-profit PorColombia has mobilized Facebook and Twitter campaigns against the movie, joining their voice with a chorus of Colombians online who feel the movie reinforces negative stereotypes about Colombia.
These social media efforts were supported by protestors physically handing out pamphlets offering a positive image of Colombia to New York moviegoers.
The film's star, Zoe Saldaña, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, fired back against the campaign, calling it "stupid," before defending the film with the argument that it has nothing to do with drugs... and everything to do with violence.
Zoe, Zoe, do you know what gets bigger the more you take away from it? The hole you're digging yourself into.
As Mark Bowden succinctly says in his book Killing Pablo, Colombia suffered through a "nightmarish period of bloodletting so empty of meaning it is called simply La Violencia."
Trading one negative stereotype for another is no defense, Zoe.
But if it's violence you really want, perhaps you can seek it in a different, less vacuous way.
Take the film Rosario Tijeras. Based on the novel by Jorge Franco Ramos, it also tells the story of a beautiful assassin stalking the streets of Colombia... with one essential difference.
Where Cataleya Restrepo, the killer protagonist of Colombiana glorifies violence, the Rosario Tijeras character shows us that ultimately there is no glory in it at all.
Only tragedy.
The Non-profit PorColombia has mobilized Facebook and Twitter campaigns against the movie, joining their voice with a chorus of Colombians online who feel the movie reinforces negative stereotypes about Colombia.
These social media efforts were supported by protestors physically handing out pamphlets offering a positive image of Colombia to New York moviegoers.
The film's star, Zoe Saldaña, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent, fired back against the campaign, calling it "stupid," before defending the film with the argument that it has nothing to do with drugs... and everything to do with violence.
Zoe, Zoe, do you know what gets bigger the more you take away from it? The hole you're digging yourself into.
As Mark Bowden succinctly says in his book Killing Pablo, Colombia suffered through a "nightmarish period of bloodletting so empty of meaning it is called simply La Violencia."
Trading one negative stereotype for another is no defense, Zoe.
But if it's violence you really want, perhaps you can seek it in a different, less vacuous way.
Take the film Rosario Tijeras. Based on the novel by Jorge Franco Ramos, it also tells the story of a beautiful assassin stalking the streets of Colombia... with one essential difference.
Where Cataleya Restrepo, the killer protagonist of Colombiana glorifies violence, the Rosario Tijeras character shows us that ultimately there is no glory in it at all.
Only tragedy.
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