THE GAME OF LIFE
MOVIE - 2024
A filmmaker, who is part of a study on economic and social dynamics in Colombia, filmed 7 families over 13 years to see their changes and understand the pitfalls of poverty. On that journey he finds stories of female resilience such as that of Angie and Daniela, a pair of cousins from Simijaca (Cundinamarca) aged 9 and 10, raised by widowed mothers who dream of becoming fashion designers and models; The story of Mildred (Norte de Santander), a single mother affected by a geological fault that destroyed her village and must raise her four children in a shelter, while her youngest son dreams of becoming a singer; and the story of Inés, a single mother on the rural coast, whose only son is murdered, and who tries to provide for her seven daughters while teenage pregnancy grows in a sexist and unequal environment. The director interprets what he sees as he revisits his own life in which he suffered lack of access to basic necessities and different struggles. At the end life is a game.
Directed and written by: Mario Andres Ruiz Zuluaga
Produce by: Jorge Andrés Botero - Septima Films
Original music: Sara Ramirez Marquez
Director of photography: Helkín René Díaz (ADFC) / Diego Armando Pinzón Másmela
Montage: Carlos Cordero, ECCA / David Rojas Sánchez, ECCA
Country: Colombia
THE FISHERMAN'S DAUGHTER
movie - 2023
A group of friends reunite in a summer house to celebrate the return of Helena. Among them are Sofia and Andrés, who appear to be the perfect couple; Mario, who asks Marcela, his wife, to make this the party of their lives; Juan, who can’t stop thinking about Silvie, his college sweetheart, a married woman who needs a break from her marriage; and Lalo, Helena’s best friend, who conceals an illness. The party gets out of control and Helena is abused by Andrés. The next morning, hungover and confused, she tries to piece together in her head the incident. Amidst the growing tension, the secret becomes impossible to hold back and this marks the disintegration of the group. Although, for Helena this also means the opportunity to begin a new life.
A film by: Edgar de Luque Jácome.
Produced by:
Jorge Andrés Botero - Séptima Films (Colombia)
Annabelle Mullen - Belle Films (Puerto Rico)
Rodrigo Letier - Kromaki (Brasil)
Tatiana Leite - Bubbles Project (Brasil)
Elsa Turull de Alma - Larimar Films (República dominicana)
Director of photography: Rafael Gonzalez.
Edited by: Karen Akerman, Ricardo Pretti.
Written by: Edgar de Luque Jácome.
PRESS KIT
the deepest red
movie - 2023
My father, a 70-year-old union member, survived threats and the extermination of his political party. I inherited his conviction, becoming a communist at 15. In 2014, a hitman shot him in Cartagena, but thanks to his bodyguard he survived. To protect himself he had to separate from my mother and go into exile in Europe. When we returned to Colombia we lived in Bogotá. I discovered a being who fights alone and who needs his family. I wonder about the meaning of their struggle and my militancy, through a journey to the past that goes from Russia, through the failed attempts at peace in Colombia and settles in the present of my fractured family.
Directed by: Yira Plaza O'Byrne.
Produced by: Séptima Films.
Distributed by: Briosa Films.
PRESS KIT
Producer: Jorge Botero
Director of photography: Helkín René Díaz Gomez.
Edited by: Maria Teresa (Titi) Viera Gallo.
Original music: Santiago Lozano.
Written by: Yira Plaza O'Byrne.
Country: Colombia
A PLACE CALLED DIGNITY
MOVIE - 2021
Pablo, a 12-year-old boy, receives a scholarship to attend school in the mysterious and isolated Colonia Dignidad, established by German settlers in Chile. He quickly becomes a favorite of the colony's leader, Uncle Paul. Over time, Pablo witnesses the strangest things happening there: abuse, disappearances, and demon-like creatures used to frighten children. But in this wicked world, a revolution is brewing and it may be his only way out.
Director: Matías Rojas Valencia
Script: Matías Rojas Valencia
Cast: Salvador Insunza, Hanns Zischler, Amalia Kassai, Noa Westermeyer, Luis Dubó, Leonie Wesselow, David Gaete.
Produced by: Quijote Films
Co-Producer Companies: Mandra Films, Kinkerfilm, Autocroma, Séptima Films
Cinematography: Benjamín Echazarreta
Editing: Andrea Chignoli, Matías Rojas Valencia
Countries: Chile, France, Germany, Argentina, Colombia.
LAS IGUANAS
Serie - 2021
A group of friends reunite in a summer house to celebrate the return of Helena. Among them are Sofia and Andrés, who appear to be the perfect couple; Mario, who asks Marcela, his wife, to make this the party of their lives; Juan, who can’t stop thinking about Silvie, his college sweetheart, a married woman who needs a break from her marriage; and Lalo, Helena’s best friend, who conceals an illness. The party gets out of control and Helena is abused by Andrés. The next morning, hungover and confused, she tries to piece together in her head the incident. Amidst the growing tension, the secret becomes impossible to hold back and this marks the disintegration of the group. Although, for Helena this also means the opportunity to begin a new life.
Directed by : Frank Benítez
Produced by: Séptima Films
co-production with: Frank Benítez Peña, Pilar Díaz Peña, Isabel Gaona Herazo, Jhon Mora Arcila
Producer: Jorge Botero
Director of Photography: Will Vela
Production Design: Camilo Barreto
Editing: Carlos Cordero, Frank Benítez,
Direct Sound: Andrés Millán
Original Music: Santiago Lozano
Casting Director: Pilar Díaz Quesada
Director of Actors: Andrés Barrios
Written by: Lina Arboleda, Frank Benítez
Country: Colombia
PRESS KIT
after NORMA
(después de norma) movie - 2019
Norma de Botero is the director's mother and is diagnosed with a terminal illness. When the director finds out he is forced to record it, her, himself, the family... In this way the memories of childhood, fragments of a joyful, uninhibited and vital young mother, which the director recorded as a child, alternate with the uncertainty of what is to come, a tired and silent father who will be alone... It is who we were and who we will be, but it is above all the need to tell. It is not only what the film documents, the memory that it contains, but the need to make the film itself as catharsis, and the need to keep recording, even if death comes after Norma.
Director: Jorge Andrés Botero
Production Company: Séptima Films
Cast: Norma Botero de Botero, Luis Jorge Botero, Beatriz Botero, María Isabel Botero
Camera: Andrés Bernal, Jorge Andrés Botero
Editing: David Rojas, Carlos Cordero
Original Score: Santiago Lozano
Postproduction Manager: Mariángela González
Run Time: 93min.
Country: Colombia
PRESS KIT
X-Quinientos (x500)
movie - 2016
Maria arrives in Montreal from Manila to live with her grandmother and struggles to adapt to this new environment. Alex, a young Afro-Colombian, is deported from the United States to Colombia to find his old neighborhood controlled by criminals. David leaves his town after the death of his father to seek a better future in Mexico City. X Quinientos follows the lives of these three teenagers in different cities in America as they go through the same path of pain, migration and transformation.
Directed by: Juan Andrés Arango
Production companies: Périphéria Films, Séptima Films, Machete
Cast: Yonatan Diaz Angulo, Jembie Almazan, Bernardo García Cruz
Countries: Canada, Colombia, México
Direction of Photography: Nicolas Canniccioni
Editing: Felipe Guerrero
Duration: 108 min.
PRESS KIT
BEST FILM: The Colombian Film Festival NY 2016
Los Cabos Film Festival - México Primero 2017
N.N.
movie - 2014
The body of a man who disappeared during the political violence period in Peru is found, but nobody claims it. The only element that leads us into his identity is a picture of a smiley girl found under his shirt. Just a blurry picture, metaphor of a time and a memory.
Directed by: Héctor Gálvez
Production companies: Piedra Alada Producciones, MPM producciones, Autentika film, Séptima Films
Cast: Paul Vega, Antonieta Pari, Isabel Gaona
Countries: Peru, Colombia
WINNER best direction (FICCI)
LA PLAYA D.C.
película - 2012
Tomás, a black teenager who has fled the Pacific coast because of the war, tries to make his way in Bogotá, a traditionally racist city. There, he begins a desperate search for Jairo, his younger brother, who has disappeared amidst the streets and the bazuco. Accompanied by Chaco, his older brother, who sees illegal migration as the only escape from marginality, Tomás will undertake an initiation journey through an Afro Bogotá, discovering the network of spaces that the black population has created by dint of hard work. In this city in transformation, Tomás will be forced to test his courage to put everything aside, fear, nostalgia and the wounds of the past, and thus start over at 2,600 meters above sea level, where the sea is very far away.
Directed by: Juan Andrés Arango
Production companies: Séptima Films, Burning Blue, Bananeira Filmes, Cinésud Promotion
Cast: Luis Carlos Guevara, Andrés Murillo, James Solis
Photography Direction: Nicolas Caniccioni
Editing: Felipe Guerrero
Duration: 108min.
PRESS KIT
Countries: Colombia, Francia, Brasil
-Best Director, International Competition, SANFIC8 -Santiago International Film Festival-, Chile, 2012.
- Best First Film, Official Fiction Competition, Lima International Film Festival, Peru, 2012.
- Films in Progress, San Sebastian International Film Festival - Spain, 2011
- Work in progress, AUSTRALAB, Valdivia International Film Festival FICVALDIVIA - Chile, 2011
Gente de bien
película - 2014
Eric, 10, finds himself almost overnight living with Gabriel, his father, who he barely knows. The man has trouble keeping their heads above water and building a relationship with his son. Maria Isabel, the woman Gabriel works for as a carpenter, decides to take the child under her wing.
Directed by: Franco Lolli
Production companies: Evidencia Films, Geko Films
Associate producer: Séptima Films
Cast: Brayan Santamaría, Carlos Fernando Perez, Alejandra Borrero
Cinematography: Oscar Durán
Countries: France, Colombia.
- Audience Award, Berlin Colombian Film Festival, Germany, 2015
- Best Film, Official Competition, 18th Lima Film Festival, Peru, 2014.
- Special Mention, Horizontes Latinos, 62nd San Sebastian Film Festival, Spain, 2014.
- Best Film, 41st Film Fest Gent, Belgium, 2014.
- Best Actors, 4th La Orquídea Film Festival, Ecuador, 2014.
- Best Film by a Latin American Director under 35 years old, 29th Mar del Plata International Film Festival, Argentina, 2014
- Special Jury Prize (First Film category), Havana International New Latin American Film Festival, Cuba, 2014.
no todos los ríos van al mar
cortometraje - 2008
The arrival of Hassan’s letter, a boy from the Middle East, changes Yenny and Esmeralda's relationship. The two sisters have recently arrived at a refugee slum on the outskirts of Bogotá. Esmeralda, the older sister, is able to attend school, where she participates in a pen pal program. The letter exchange inspires Yenny, the younger sister who couldn't get into school, to start reading and answering the letters that her sister receives. Yenny is happy to know that her life is important to others. But when the letters stop coming, Esmeralda starts replying to Yenny's letters to save her sister from succumbing to the fate of their situation.
Directed by: Santiago Trujillo Escobar
Production companies: Séptima Films
Cast: Kelly Dayana Chivará, María Katherine Rodríguez, Jorge Armando Rodríguez, Cristian Camilo Chivará