Film director Jairo Carillo launches Colombia’s first full-length 3D animated film “Pequeños Voces” on September 16, reported La Nacion news on Wednesday.
Despite it’s light-hearted, colorful, and three dimensional appearance, the film centers around the grave theme of forcefully displaced children aged 8-13 years old, told through their stories, fears, and dreams.
Carillo was born in Cucuta and raised in Bogota, where there he was exposed to the harsh reality of displaced children. In 2000, Carillo began to become familiar with displaced children through Bogota’s Red Cross. He met around 120 children who had been victims of violence in Colombia, and decided to tell their story through his film making.
The story was first made into a 19 minute short film, and in 2003 was shown in the International Venice Film Festival where it received very good reviews. Seven years later, and with 56 more minutes of footage, “Pequeñas Voces” has achieved the prestige of being Colombia’s first 3D animated film. The film will also be launched in movie theaters throughout France, soon after it’s debut in Colombia.
In an interview with El Pais, Carillo was asked how his film compares to “Los Colores de la Montaña” which is another film that shows the armed conflict from the viewpoint of children. The director responded, ” Los Colores de la Montaña is a very good film, I like it a lot, but in ‘Pequeños Voces’ there are real testimonies, and we are seeing the other side of the conflict: the recruitment of children. For me it was as important to see the children victims as the victimizers. The other movie is fiction, this is the reality.”