THINKING LIKE A MOUNTAINA D O C U M E N TA R Y B Y A L E X A N D E R H I C K

FLIPPING THE COIN

FILMS

filmfestivalmaxophüls preis

2019Competition

filmfestivalmaxophüls preis

2019Competition

filmfestivalmaxophüls preis

2019Competition

2

3

Logline 04

Synopsis 05

Director statement 07

Info & Crew 10

Protagonist & Production 11

Festival participacion & Awards 13

Trailer & Website 15

Biography, filmography Director 16

Biography, filmography Crew 17

Support 18

Contact 19

INDEX

4

LOGLINE

The Arhuacos are the guardians of the forest and the ice of Colom-bias highest mountain. While on the surface this ancient culture appears not to have changed in centuries, Thinking Like a Moun-tain reveals a much more complex reality.

5

SYNOPSIS

The Arhuacos are the guardians of the forest and the ice of Colom-bias highest mountain- the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. They draw from this unique environment a sustained and singular spi-rituality. For the first time in their history the Arhuacos invited a filmmaker, Alexander Hick, to visit the most remote communities and sacred sites in the heartland of their territory. „Thinking like a Mountain“ tells the story of resistance and preservation of nature, which is a voyage through space and time: from the shores of the Caribbean to the stars that light up the night on the glacier; from the Arhuacos encounter with the first colonising whites, to the ho-mecoming of an Arhuaco guerrillero following the laying-down of arms by the FARC.

While on the surface the Arhuaco culture appears not to have chan-ged in centuries, this film reveals quite the opposite. The cosmo-gony specific to this territory and its people has been preserved due to the self imposed isolationism of the Arhuacos, but a solemn history of violence is progressively drawn out through the film brou-ght on by the changing political and spiritual landscape. In a thou-ght provoking and pointed manner the film explores the colliding of two cultures and portraits indigenous life in the 21th century where isolationism seems to vanish, just like the glacier held sacred by its people.

6

7

DIRECTOR STATEMENT

The Sierra Nevada is the highest coastal mountain in the world and home to an incredible verity of ecosystems. Most people aren’t even aware of this place and yet it connects us all: The Sierra Neva-da de Santa Marta is the heart of the world, so the Arhuaco elders. If it stops beating, earth is only a dying body.

I first learned of the Arhuaco community and their strong relation-ship with the ancestral land after moving to Colombia in September 2015. What at a first glance seemed to be a untouched paradise turned into a landscape full of history, resistance and violence. I as-ked myself how the community, which still lives in relative isolation, interpret the changing climate which they witness everyday?

My first meeting was with the Arhuaco Governor Rogelio Mejia, who stepped out of a bullet proof car, protected by two body-guards. I knew a little bit about the work of the Arhuaco community in the Sierra Nevada but this fist meeting was against my expectati-ons. Soon I learned that the struggle of the Arhuaco community in protecting their land and spreading their message has been a sa-crifice costing the life’s of many. I continuously attended meetings

of the Arhuaco community elders learning about their situation, and gradually earning enough trust to propose my project to them. Another year would pass by before I was allowed to begin filming.

I am a lifetime mountain climber, nevertheless the western moun-taineering idea of reaching a summit and proving human strength over nature was never the purpose of my visit and the film. Quite the opposite, our adventure was to establish a bridge of knowled-ge and to get a insight of the Arhuacos stunning work and relation-ship with the mountain and the world.

8

9

10

Feature length: 91min

TV length: 52 min

Production year: 2018

Shooting format: Sony 4K

Screening format: DCP, Digital format, Bluray

Aspect ratio: 1:1,85

Soundformat: Dolby 5.1

Written and directed: Alexander Hick

Camara: Immanuel Hick

Production: Ana Lozano

Edit: Julian Sarmiento

Music: Christian Castagno & Nacho Drault

Translation: Ati Gundiwa Villafañe I Maria Carmen Villafañe I Luce-lly Villafañe I Cayetano Torres I Jordan Troeller

Sounddesign: Andreas Goldbrunner

Colorgrading: Claudia Fuchs

Titledesigne: Ester Sanchez

Consulting producer: Gunter Hanfgarn I Maxim Holland

Consulting edit: Marta Andreu

INFO CREW

11

A Flipping the coin Films production in coproduction with Univer-sity for Television and Films Munich supported by FilmFernseh-Fonds Bayern and Freunde und Förderer der HFF München.

Flipping the coin Films

University for Television and Films Munich

Freunde und Förderer der HFF München

FilmFernsehFonds Bayern

LfA Förderbank Bayern

Jwikamey Torres I Bunkey Torres

José de la Cruz Torres

Mamo Bernandino Suarez I Cornelio Suarez I Alfonso Suarez

Norma Suarez I Tobía Chaparro

Rogelio Mejía Izquierdo

Margarita Villafañe

Nawingumu und Familie

Javier Torres I Mercedes Torres Joel Norena Serna

Mamo Efraín Torres

PRODUCTIONPROTAGONIST

12

13

FESTIVAL PARTICIPATION

Visions du réel, Schwitzerland, 2018

Human Rights Filmfestival Inconvenient Films, Lithuania, 2018

Astra Filmfestival, Rumania, 2018

Autrans International Filmfestival, France, 2018

Cervino Cinemountain Festival, Italy, 2018 Mountainfilmfestival Graz, Austria, 2018

Firststep Awards, German Filmacademy, 2018

Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis, Germany, 2019

Festival Internacional de Cine Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, 2019

Ethnocineca Filfestival, Austria, Competition Excellence in Visual Anthropology Award, 2019

Royal Anthropological Institute Filmfestival, UK, 2019

Muestra de cine de derechos humanos, Guatemala, 2019

Encuentros del otro cine, Ecuador, 2019

Festival of Transcultural Cinema, Germany, 2019

Dokfest Munich, Nominated for the documentary talent award, Germany, 2019

AWARDS

German Human Rights Filmaward, 2018

14

15

TRAILER AND WEBSITE

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/263967430

Website: http://thinkinglikeamountain.org

Instagram: flippingthecoin & alexander_hick

16

BIOGRAPHY, FILMOGRAPHY DIRECTOR

Alexander Hick studied Fine Arts with Prof. Kosuth in Munich and in Barcelona and Documentary Films in Munich (HFF) and Mexico City (CCC). He is IFMGA certified mountain guide and cofounded Flipping the coin, a Berlin based artist collective. Scorched Water was his first feature documentary. His films and media installations successfully screened at International Film Festivals (Zurich Filmfes-tival, Morelia Filmfestival, Visions du reel, Leipzig Dokfest, Filmfest Munich, DokFest Munich, FICCI Colombia) and museums (Macba, Haus der Kunst, Pinakothek der Moderne).

Documentary:

Scorched Water (Atl Tlachinolli), 2015, 78min.

San Agustin, low tide in the plastic sea, 2012, 72min.

Short and Essayfilms:

Saint Germain, 2010, 17min.

Day after day, 2010, 14min.

Blaueis, 2009, 8min.

Make no way the way, 2007, 29min.

17

BIOGRAPHY, FILMOGRAPHY CAMARA

Immanuel Hick, Germany, 1982, specializes in shooting documen-taries and reportage. His films have been screened in Museums like Guggenheim Museum Bilbao; Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Pinako-thek der Moderne Munich. Currently he is DoP for the Grimme- awarded ARTE TV- Show „Streetphilosophy“.

BIOGRAPHY EDITOR

Julián Sarmiento, Colombia, 1984, graduated in Fine Arts, as film director and film editor. During his training, he made more than six short films in Mexico. He was first assistant editor in two fea-ture films Ilusión Nacional (Olallo Rubio, 2014) and Retrato Pánico (Olallo Rubio 2015) and edited the feature documentary Atl Tlachi-nolli (Alexander Hick 2014) and several documentary episodes for french TV.

18

SUPPORT

CONTACT

Flipping the coin Films

www.flippingthecoin.de

hick@flippingthecoin.de

+49 177 9632983

FLIPPING THE COIN

FILMS