Junior tu papá

Played in Barranquilla, Colombia on December 19, 1993—seventeen days after the death of Pablo Escobar—this match provides a focal point through which to explore the broader context of violence, memory, identity and diasporic connection. The story is told through a combination of candid phone calls, home videos, family photos, archival news coverage and stunning landscape footage of Caribbean Colombia.

The project is tied to Caribbean Colombia and the film incorporates the landscape of the region. Through lingering shots—filmed in Atanquez, Guatapuri and the Tayrona National Park—that capture the geography, we map the diverse ecosystems and conditions that form the “Costeño” identity and culture. The land holds memory of its own and this is something I was keen to represent, alongside the recollections of my father, my two uncles and my own.

Junior tu papá is an act of remembering; a way to reconnect with my father and uncles over a fútbol match that I watched on a VHS tape when I was six years old. Through this piecing together of collective memory, made up of different perspectives and the fragments that remain, we seek to relive this moment together for the first time in thirty years.