Colombian popular cinemas. The Cap (La Gorra), a case study

Abstract

Through the analysis of La gorra (Andrés Lozano, community of the neighborhood Los Guamos, 2009), this article explores a kind of cinema born in popular sectors of Colombia. Films made with underpriced digital technologies and distributed in video stalls on the urban centers’ streets and
online platforms. The first part proposes a reading of the development of cinema in Colombia as a pluralization process. How through wider access to the technologies for film production, is possible the emergence of popular movies as La gorra. The second part delves into the production logics of the film, having as reference grass-roots cinema and the elements of hegemonic cinema and
television it takes. With the understanding of the production processes of La gorra this article
proposes a notion of popular film. Through the narrative elements the film uses, a third part deepens
in the relation between the local and global, subaltern and hegemonic that make the film a popular production. This texts concludes with a call for the research, preservation, and exhibition of popular movies in official circuits that can place them in the panorama of what we understand as Colombian cinema.