Bicentenario
Film trailer
Film synopsis
Summoning Bolivar’s spirit in the exact places of the liberation battles 200 years ago, Bicentenario reveals the contemporary social rituals that perpetuate the ongoing violence residing deep within the political unconscious. In 200 years, Simon Bolivar’s legacy has become a mix of political mysticism, unquestioned doctrine and enigma – or perhaps a curse that has fixed itself in the collective imaginary of an entire continent. It is this curse that Bicentenario seeks to invoke, and perhaps exorcise.
Info box
Title: Bicentenario
Length: 43 min
Country of Origin: Canada/Colombia
Completion Year: 2020
Director: Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Film stills
About the director
Pablo Álvarez Mesa is a filmmaker and cinematographer working mainly in documentary. His films have played at international film festivals including Berlinale, IFFR, Venice, Visions du Reel, and Anthology Film Archives. His interest in documentary lies in the relationship between fact and fiction; between what is recalled and what is inevitably constructed. His films all touch in one way or another issues of displacement, history and collective memory. He is an affiliate member of the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University, an alumnus of Berlinale Talents, Banff Centre for the Arts, Canadian Film Centre and is artist in residence at Fogo Island Arts (2022).
English (United States) 
Serbian