Luis Ospina(Part 2): The social context of film-making

Cinema as a document or cinema as exploitation? The responsibility of cinema and TV series in stunting public debate, and encouraging a culture of easy money. Making a biographical film while close to death, his life really passed in front of his eyes.

His latest film "It all started at the end", was conceived with the plan of making a retrospective film about the history of Colombian cinema, but he suddenly found himself diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that required immediate hospitalization, to actually have a chance of surviving. This exemplifies why he doesn't believe in making plans, he says, because they can suddenly change.

Luckily he enjoys surprises. And by extension he has a life-long mistrust of idealistic theories and ideologies, 'sold to us by philosophers and politicians', which, when put into practice quickly fall apart at great human cost. But there is still the question of legacy, both personal and of Colombian cinema, tied up with the question of responsible film-making - he detests the way that cinema and especially TV have exploited drug-related violence in Latin America, and glorified criminals like Escobar as if they were the brand-image of Colombia.

His film looks back over his life in cinema, and thanks to his illness it worked as a classic example of a person's life passing before their eyes near to death, complete with a breaking-up of chronological sequence, and flashbacks: life truly imitating art.

In his musings, he also reflects on his place in the creative triangle he formed for many years with Carlos Mayola and Andres Caicedo, and how so many artists of that period burned out and died young.

This interview was first published in The Prisma Multicultural Newspaper in 2018, where it can be read in full with accompanying images here: https://theprisma.co.uk/2018/02/05/luis-ospinapart-2-the-social-context-of-film-making/