Saturday, November 21, 2026, 9 PM — Cinemateca Portuguesa (Luís de Pina Room), Lisboa
Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future
(Nuestra Voz de Tierra, Memoria y Futuro)
Marta Rodríguez & Jorge Silva
1981 | Colombia | 105′ | Spanish, with Portuguese subtitles
Screening introduced by Victor Guimarães
As an extension of Doc’s Kingdom 2026: Undercurrents, counterspells, taking place from November 13 to 18 in Odemira, Cinemateca Portuguesa will host a special screening of the film Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future, directed by Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva (Colombia, 1981).
The screening will be introduced by Victor Guimarães, who will provide context for the decades-long collaborative work of the duo composed by documentary filmmaker and anthropologist Marta Rodríguez and self-taught cinematographer Jorge Silva, while also drawing connections between the film and the program presented in Odemira.
“In Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future, a thorough account of the struggles of the Indigenous community of Coconuco in Colombia is interwoven with highly stylized, allegorical sequences. However, the work draws no clear distinction between documentary and fiction. The history of the formation of the Cauca Regional Indigenous Council (CRIC) is as integral to the film as its enactments of mythological narratives.
This constant interplay between magical thought and political discourse creates a complex structure shaped by years of ethnographic research that Marta Rodríguez conducted with the Paeces, Guambianos, and Arhuacos communities in the region. It all began with a failed screening of Campesinos (1975), their previous film, for members of the CRIC. […] The intricate cinematic forms of Our Voice of Earth, Memory and Future could never overcome the disasters produced by centuries of oppression. Yet the energy they generate becomes sensory material for perceiving reality, nourishment for political imagination, and fuel for the struggles to come.”
— Victor Guimarães
Victor Guimarães is a Brazilian programmer, film critic and professor, currently a programmer at FICValdivia (Chile) and artistic director of FENDA – Experimental Festival of Film Arts (Belo Horizonte), who has curated programs for venues such as XCèntric (Barcelona), Essay Film Festival (London), Woche der Kritik (Berlin) and Cinemateca de Bogotá.
Marta Rodríguez (Bogotá, Colombia, 1933), who held a degree in sociology, moved to Paris in 1961 to study anthropology, ethnology and film, where she met Jean Rouch. On her return to Bogotá, she founded the student film club Ocho y Medio and met Jorge Silva, who would go on to become her husband and cameraman. Together, they worked on Chircales (1971), the first of many joint film projects. Marta Rodríguez continues to work as a documentary filmmaker.
Jorge Silva (Girardot, Colombia, 1941–1987) studied literature and visual arts and worked as a photographer and journalist. In the early 1960s, he became involved in the student film club movement and made his first film, Días de Papel. He met Marta Rodríguez in 1965, whom he would later marry. In addition to their close cinematic collaboration over the following decades, he also worked as a director of photography on other films.
>> Invitations available by reservation via email: docskingdom@docskingdom.org
Screening organised with the support of the Embassy of Brazil in Portugal, in partnership with Cinemateca Portuguesa.