Generales

By Ronal Magnum Castañeda Tabares, Journalist at UdeA Communications Office 

Graduates from the Multimedia Audiovisual Communication program at the Universidad de Antioquia, led by Embera Chamí filmmaker Irati Dojura Landa Yagarí, will showcase their work and represent their community at the Berlin Film Festival. This renowned event will mark the international premiere of their locally produced film. 

Original poster of the short fiction film. Photo courtesy. 

UdeA graduate Irati Dojura Landa Yagarí, a member of the Embera Chamí community of Karmata Rúa in Jardín, Antioquia, will compete at the Berlinale— the prestigious Berlin Film Festival— with her debut short film, Akababuru: Expresión de asombro. The festival, held from February 13 to 23, will showcase her film in the Generation Kplus section, which presents innovative international cinema for young audiences. 

According to the festival’s website, the selection focuses on “stories seen through the eyes of young protagonists, bringing their worlds to life. These films are meaningful, open doors to new experiences, require courage, offer intersectional viewpoints, and promote collective solutions.” 

In just 13 minutes and originally filmed in the Embera Chamí language, this unreleased short film, Akababuru: Expresión de asombro, follows the story of Kari, an 8-year-old Embera girl living in her indigenous reservation who is afraid to laugh. After hearing the myth of Kiraparamira, in which a woman is punished for laughing at her husband—losing her hair, turning green and monstrous, and being pelted with fruit by her husband to make her leave—Kari, disturbed by the story, speaks with a young neighbor. The neighbor helps her see the myth in a new light: laughter is not a punishment but a reward for freedom, a realization that gives Kari the courage to face the challenges of her everyday life. 

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In short, director Irati Dojura reimagined a traditional myth from her community, offering her interpretation. This approach likely caught the attention of the international competition, where the short film will have its world premiere. Her role in this production further establishes her as an influential figure of female empowerment, audiovisual innovation, and leadership within her community and the indigenous movement. 

The beginning of the story 

During her studies in the Audiovisual and Multimedia Communication (CAM) undergraduate program, Irati Dojura began exploring and writing about the myth of Kiraparamira, a story she had known since childhood. 

“My first memory of this story dates back to when I was seven, at my school in the Karmata Rúa reservation. I watched a play performed by the 11th graders, and I still remember the portrayal of Kiraparamira, a woman crying behind her husband. I saw people laughing as she lost her hair, but I couldn’t understand why they found it so amusing. To me, she was suffering. Later, my mother explained that Kiraparamira was a woman punished by the gods of nature for laughing at her husband,” recalled the Embera Chamí indigenous woman. 

“I was deeply shocked and wondered: what if it wasn’t a punishment but a reward, and perhaps she ended up becoming a guardian of nature...” Driven by this thought, Irati Dojura began developing the script for her degree project short film. She created a sketch log, outlined the narrator’s perspective, and conducted multiple interviews with adult men and women in her village. They shared various versions of the Kiraparamira myth—some quite different—but Irati soon identified a recurring pattern: a patriarchal perspective that almost always portrayed the woman as the story’s wrongdoer. 

Through its storytelling, the short film examines the beliefs, ideas, and actions passed down through generations. It uses the Embera Chamí myth to highlight patterns that often place women in subordinate roles or rank them below men.  

Years of collective work 

The Berlinale selection is a significant milestone for director Irati Dojura and her team. However, it only scratches the surface. Behind this recognition lies three years of preparation, community engagement, drafts, exchanges, rehearsals, and resource hunting. 

Upon completing her degree project, which received an honorable mention and support from the Codi (Committee for Research Development of the UdeA), Irati created a teaser—a visual preview—and, alongside a group of friends from her program, decided to continue pursuing the production of her project. She co-founded the socially-driven audiovisual collective Liminti with colleagues and began submitting the project to various funding opportunities. She submitted it to the Film Development Fund (FDC) in 2002, under the ethnic populations category, one of the largest in Colombia for this type of production. 

The initial FDC grant gave them the boost they needed to take the proposal seriously. It paved the way for a string of recognitions and incentives: Lunaria Fund (2023), Survival Culture (2023), and participation in OriginariosLab (2023), Bogotá Audiovisual Market (2023), Bogoshorts Incubator (2023), and the National Meeting of Producers (2024).

Still from the live-action short film. Photo courtesy. 

“We did the math and found that the project involved 17 colleagues from the CAM undergraduate program and three from other faculties. Additionally, we collaborated with university professionals and members of the resguardo—some with audiovisual experience and others self-taught. All filming, including live-action and animation, took place in Karmata Rúa,” shared Laura Giraldo Mira, producer and fellow program graduate. 

The live-action filming (the actual part) took five days, while the stop-motion animation, which creates movement by assembling illustrations frame by frame, was completed in two days. The animation drew inspiration from the visual style of beadwork. 

“We conducted acting workshops with community children and worked with the indigenous trans collective Wërapara, who crafted the beads. The production team consisted of UdeA graduates and people from my territory,” said Irati Dojura.

The illustrations blended with handcrafted bead designs from native peoples to create a frame-by-frame animation. Photo courtesy.  

“Midway through the process, we ran into several challenges. The FDC, for example, required the RUT (Registro Único Tributario) to process payments for each operator and collaborator. Many didn’t have it—some didn’t even own a cell phone,” said producer Giraldo Mira, for whom this is her second production role and first in fiction. 

Juliana Restrepo Santamaría, a CAM undergraduate professor who has closely observed the Luminti collective, highlighted their unique approach to collaboration: “I’ve noticed a sense of harmony within this team—their balance in managing emotions and leadership stands out. It feels very horizontal and free from hierarchy. Traditionally, men almost always hold leadership roles in these productions.” 

The professor also pointed out that, alongside the collective, the UdeA is committed to supporting cultural diversity. In line with this, the CAM undergraduate program encourages students to share their origins. Several indigenous students, including Irati, have produced self-referenced work as part of this approach. 

Back to the root 

Irati Dojura Landa Yagarí, director of the short film. Photo: courtesy. 

Although the Berlinale selection surprised the Luminti group, the collective aims to distribute the film in other international competitions. Irati Dojura also plans to take this story to Colombia’s indigenous territories: “My Embera Chamí people is one of the 115 recognized in the country; we have our language, and I am proud to say that I made this film in the Embera Chamí language,” said Irati Dojura, who will now represent Colombia at the Berlinale. 

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When people ask Irati Dojura about her connection to her undergraduate studies, she responds with the pride of someone deeply grateful to her Alma Mater, acknowledging the support and patience of her professors. She feels a strong sense of gratitude toward the UdeA, remembering that, alongside her studies in audiovisuals, she also learned to appreciate her roots: 

“My name is Irati Dojura, which translates to ‘siren of the forest’ in Spanish. I come from a beautiful indigenous territory called Karmata Rúa, an ancestral name meaning ‘land of pringamosa.’ It is also known as Cristianía, an imposed name meaning ‘Land of Christians.’”