Partisan violence hit the Colombian countryside in 1948. Members of the official forces killed several peasants, among them the husband of Rosalba Velasco. She witnessed the massacre and fell into a downward trajectory that turned her into an instrument of revenge and death. For a decade, her actions left countless police and civilians dead as she the became the target of persecution by the Army, the Police and paramilitary bands.
William González’ She,The Sergeant Matacho (La Sargento Matacho) tells the story of Velasco, a woman trapped in the spiral of violence in Colombia. Matacho embodies both love and hatred, a desire for revenge and peace, life and death, warped in the heat of the fratricidal war that continues to shock the country.
See the NYC Premiere of ‘She, The Sergeant Matacho’ on February 25, 2018 @6:30pm at Cinema Village (22 East 12th Street) at New York City’s 7th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival.
Director and Producer William González was asked why he made this film. He told us that it all started when a renowned historian wrote the stories of several bandits of the 50s and a cinephile friend called several directors. The idea was to make a saga of at least three movies.
González was very attracted by the story of Rosalba Velasquez (the sergeant matacho) because she was the only female bandit on that list, and he and Producer Alina Hleap believed that 95% of Colombians did not know her story. This was also what motivated Hleap to produce it: how a woman who is a giver of life can be upset in such a way that she becomes incomprehensible. “It hurts a lot that such a story would happen in my country, though it also happens in many parts of the world.”
One of the main reasons the team made She, The Sergeant Matacho was to investigate this exercise of violence. Once the film was made, the film team felt astonished and bewildered at the extreme violence, but there were no answers. A question also arises: What, as writers, attracted them so much? Perhaps they recognize it – the exercise of violence in its multiple manifestations?
Hleap spoke about what she learned while shooting – with this film they have learned a lot, not only from the filmmaking but from life. As a producer, she must be resilient, to recover and keep going until she reaches her goals. Today she feels even more proud of herself, because they have managed to take their film to many countries and they hope their proposal of reconciliation will be brought to all corners of Colombia. Colombia is very polarised right now, and through this movie, she is trying to create spaces where people can start talking about peace and reconciliation.
Filming this movie entailed incredible logistical challenges because it was set the 1950s in the Colombian countryside. After an exhaustive search, the team was able to find the locations they needed – in Valle del Caucathe aka the “Red Zone”, territories controlled by paramilitaries and guerrilla fighters. The year they shot the film, Colombia was going through difficult violent upheavals, which forced the team to contact the heads of these warring armed outlaw groups and beg them for their permission and accompaniment for the shoot.
This film was a co-production between three countries, and took nearly five years to complete.
Vashti Persaud
Writer & Filmmaker Vashti Persaud was born and raised in Guyana South America. Her passion for films and storytelling has motivated her to move to the United States in order to attend the New York Film Academy, where she has studied Screenwriting and Filmmaking. Vashti graduated with Excellence and has continued on the journey with storytelling and creativity by volunteering in film festival production and writing her own scripts and producing her own projects.
Vashti has always viewed film as an abstract of life and a form as to how we connect with each other.
About Winter Film Awards
New York City’s 7th Annual Winter Film Awards International Film Festival runs February 22-March 3 2018. Check out our jam-packed lineup of 93 fantastic films in all genres from 31 countries, including Animation, Drama, Comedy, Thriller, Horror, Documentary and Music Video. Hollywood might ignore women and people of color, but Winter Film Awards celebrates everyone!
Winter Film Awards is an all volunteer, minority- and women-owned registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization founded in 2011 in New York City by a group of filmmakers and enthusiasts. The program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the NY State Council on the Arts.
